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(Bloomberg) — Latvia and Romania each reported incidents involving Russian drones during another UAV barrage fired at Ukraine over the weekend, a sign of increasing aerial threats posed to countries in the region.
A Russian military drone crashed in eastern Latvia on Saturday, the country’s President Edgars Rinkevics said Sunday in a statement on X.
The drone crossed into Latvian airspace from neighboring Belarus before crashing in the Rezekne municipality, the Latvian defense ministry said on its website. Rezekne is about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of the Russian border and about 700 km north of Ukraine.
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Latvia’s foreign ministry has summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires to discuss the incident, and said it plans to increase protection of its land borders, airspace and territorial waters.
Earlier on Sunday, Romania’s foreign ministry issued a statement urging Russia to abide by international law after a drone violated its air space the previous night.
Romania issued an alert message to citizens in the counties of Tulcea and Constanta near the border, and scrambled two F-16 fighter jets as a precaution. Its government also informed NATO allies and remains in close contact with them, it said.
Russia unleashed a barrage of 23 explosive-laden Shahed drones against Ukraine overnight in addition to four cruise missiles. Ukraine was able to down one missile and 15 drones, the country’s Air Force said on Telegram.
As winter draws closer in Ukraine, Moscow’s forces have stepped up aerial attacks on energy infrastructure there, regularly sending dozens of drones to attack its territory. Those UAVs circle above Ukraine and have sometimes crossed into the airspace of neighboring countries, including Romania and Poland.
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Such incidents have sparked debate within Poland on whether to start shooting down Russian military objects that enter into its airspace. So far, Poland, also a NATO member, has been reluctant to do that due to concern of the potential damage from falling debris.
Belarus, Russia’s close ally which also neighbors Ukraine, reported downing foreign drones for the first time last week, yet avoided naming the country which sent them.
Saturday’s incident is the first known to have involved Latvia.
“The number of such incidents is increasing along the eastern flank of NATO and we must address them collectively,” Rinkevics said on X. Diplomats from NATO countries are expected to discuss the incidents in the coming days.
—With assistance from Alberto Nardelli.
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