NATO jets scramble over the Baltic after unidentified drones breach airspace

NATO fighter jets took off on an emergency mission over Baltic airspace after drones of unknown origin breached the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, arriving from the Russian or Belarusian direction.

Lithuanian authorities announced shelter warnings in a number of areas, including the city of Kaunas, the country's second-largest city with about 300,000 residents, while airports in Vilnius and Kaunas were temporarily closed. Lithuanian Chief of Staff Giedrius Premeneckas said that two attempts to intercept the drones failed, noting that the aircraft may have deviated from their flight paths because of electronic warfare.

At the same time, Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko announced that 150 drones were downed near the strategic Ust-Luga port on Russia's Baltic coast, confirming that a fire broke out at the port, three workers were injured and a power station was knocked out. Ust-Luga is a major port for exporting Russian oil, petroleum products and grain.

Finland, for its part, announced temporary restrictions on air and maritime traffic in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland in response to these developments.

Political analyst Dr. Murad Jan of Istanbul Aydin University described these incursions as a "serious security warning," cautioning that the greatest danger lies in miscalculation rather than direct confrontation. He stressed that NATO's reluctance to open fire over Kaunas stemmed from considerations related to civilian safety, not from rules of engagement restrictions, adding that the downing of a single drone without interception is "a significant shortfall, but it does not mean the alliance's deterrence has fully collapsed."