French NATO fighter jets shot down a drone over Latvia. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze thanked the “French allies for shooting down the drone that entered Latvian airspace” on the online service X on Monday. For its part, the Latvian army confirmed the intrusion of a “foreign unmanned aerial vehicle into Latvian airspace as a result of Russian electronic warfare.” They did not comment further on the origin of the drone.
The French army confirmed the deployment of two Rafale fighter jets.
On May 19, a NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia. This was NATO’s first interception of a foreign drone in the airspace of a Baltic state.
In the past few weeks, drones have entered the airspace of the Baltic countries several times or crashed on their territory. According to European experts, Russia is diverting Ukrainian drones targeting industrial facilities in the St. Petersburg region. The incidents have revealed that the air defense of the Baltic states is unable to neutralize such drones in a timely manner.
