Two NATO member states said today that Russian drones had violated their airspace their space. One drone entered Romania during the night attacks against neighboring Ukraine, and another crashed in the eastern part of Latvia the previous day, AP reported, quoted by BTA.
A drone entered Romanian territory early this morning as Moscow struck "civilian sites and port infrastructure" on the other side of the Danube River in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Romania announced. Because of this, an air alert was declared in two districts. The ministry added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text warnings to residents of two eastern regions.
Later today, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds said that a Russian drone crashed yesterday near the town of Rezekne and may have accidentally entered Latvian territory from neighboring Belarus.
Rezekne, home to more than 25,000 people, is located about 55 km west of Russia and about 75 km from Belarus, a close and dependent ally of the Kremlin, AP notes.
While the entry into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has reported drone fragments on its territory several times since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022