Residents in several regions of Estonia and Latvia were warned of potential drone activity in the early hours of Sunday as security concerns across Northern Europe intensified amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The alerts, issued during the night, come against a backdrop of heightened vigilance among Nato’s eastern members, who say they are increasingly monitoring the risk of unmanned aerial vehicles entering their airspace as the conflict continues to spill beyond Ukraine’s borders.
In Estonia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued warnings to Virumaa and Ida-Virumaa counties at around 3 am local time, explicitly linking the precautionary measures to Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
The Estonian Defence Forces later lifted the alert at approximately 5.30 am, confirming that no immediate threat had been detected in the national airspace.
In neighbouring Latvia, similar warnings were issued at around 4 am to the cities of Alūksne, Balvi, Ludza, Rēzekne and Krāslava. The Latvian National Armed Forces said they remain in continuous coordination with Nato allies to monitor airspace activity.
Officials noted that as long as Russian military operations in Ukraine continue, there remains a possibility that unmanned aerial vehicles could approach or inadvertently enter Latvian territory, either directly or as a result of wider operational activity in the region.
Separately, Finland’s Ministry of Defence reported an incident involving an unidentified drone that violated Finnish airspace near the municipality of Virolahti, close to the Russian border region of Leningrad Oblast.
The Finnish Border Guard has launched an investigation into the incident, which marks the fifth such occurrence reported in the country. Authorities have not yet confirmed the origin of the drone.
In response, Finnish forces temporarily restricted airspace over waters near the ports of Kotka and Hamina between 1.57 am and 8 am, in what officials described as a precautionary measure to improve situational awareness.
The developments come amid renewed Russian aerial activity over Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Russia launched a large-scale overnight assault involving 268 drones and ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian air defences intercepted 249 incoming targets, but several strikes reportedly struck civilian and infrastructure sites across multiple regions.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, six people were injured, including a pregnant woman and a 10-year-old boy. In Odesa, two people were killed in separate strikes, while in the Sumy region, a police officer was left in a critical condition following a drone attack.
While there is no suggestion that the incidents in the Baltics or Finland are directly linked to Russian military operations, officials across the region have increasingly warned that the war in Ukraine is creating a persistent state of heightened airspace risk along NATO’s northern and eastern flanks.
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