Ukraine Drones Trigger Baltic NATO Air Defense Plea
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- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have seen drone sightings become increasingly disruptive this week, with NATO fighter jets scrambled several times after air alerts.
- NATO fighter jets shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday; a day later a drone entered Lithuanian airspace, closing Vilnius Airport and sending residents — including the president and prime minister — to air raid shelters.
- Latvia's government in Riga collapsed last week over its response to Russia-bound Ukrainian drones straying into its territory.
- Ukraine has apologized for the incursions while blaming Russia for redirecting drones via jamming; Russia has accused the Baltic states of letting Kyiv use their airspace to strike Russian targets — claims all three countries and the EU have forcefully rejected.
- Ursula von der Leyen said "Russia and Belarus bear direct responsibility" for the drones endangering people on the EU's eastern flank, while Belgium's foreign minister called Moscow's claims "absurd."
- Lithuania's defense ministry confirmed that Belarus — not Lithuania's own systems — first notified Vilnius about Wednesday's incoming drones, a sequence the article flags as unexplained.
- The three Baltic presidents issued a joint statement Thursday calling on NATO to convert its current Baltic airspace policing mission into a "comprehensive air defence mission."
Why it matters: NATO's most vocal Ukraine backers are now absorbing direct fallout from a war fought far from their own borders, with Latvia's government already fallen over the issue. Their joint call to transform NATO's Baltic air policing into a "comprehensive air defence mission" marks a concrete escalation in what the alliance expects Article 5 airspace protection to deliver.
