Baltic Countries Issue Drone Warnings as Ukraine, Russia Exchange Strikes Overnight

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius attends a press conference in Berlin, Germany, on Oct. 5, 2026. Annegret Hilse/Reuters

NATO members scrambled fighter jets overnight after drones strayed into the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, officials have said, resulting in brief alerts for the citizens of those countries.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius on Nov. 11 called it a “difficult night,” but said there were no reports of injuries.

One of the drone alerts was for Kaunas, which is the country’s second-most populous city and home to 300,000 people.

Lithuanian Chief of Defense Staff Giedrius Premeneckas told a news ​conference that two attempts were made to shoot down a drone over Lithuania, but both attempts failed. It later crossed into the airspace of neighboring Latvia.

“We can only assume some of the drones involved in the attack against Russia were diverted by electronic warfare measures, but there ‌is no ⁠confirmed information as to whether the drone was Ukrainian or Russian,” Premeneckas said.

The Latvian National Armed Forces issued several warnings to municipalities overnight from Tuesday into the early hours of Wednesday, informing people of a possible threat in the airspace.

The Latvian military also issued advisories for residents to seek shelter inside. These warnings were all later cleared.

According to Estonian public broadcaster ERR, the Estonian Defense Forces issued a series of air threat alerts to civilians in the early hours of Nov. 11.

Residents in southern Estonia were told at around 3:15 a.m. that there was a potential air threat, and they were advised to seek shelter if they saw a drone.

The warnings were lifted a few hours later.

A spokesperson from the Estonian Defense Forces said that NATO fighter jets were scrambled in response.

Finland also adopted temporary airspace restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Finland and a maritime restriction, the Finnish Defense Forces said in a post on X, but withdrew them later.

“The restrictions were a precautionary measure to ensure the authorities’ ability to operate and the safety of bystanders,” the Finnish Defense Forces said.

US-Brokered Peace Talks

Military drones belonging to both Russia and Ukraine straying ​into the airspace of NATO allies have been raising concerns that the war is spilling over into the alliance’s eastern flank.

The incident comes as Ukrainian and Russian officials met in Abu Dhabi for talks, mediated by the United States, on ending the war.

On the second day of the U.S.-brokered talks, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large prisoner exchange.

U.S. envoy Jared Kushner told reporters that discussions were “pretty tough” and “very substantive.”

“We were able to do a good exchange of ideas—some areas we see places where we can find compromises, others we need to have more discussions,” Kushner said of the talks, which were the first direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations since February.

Reuters and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.