Latvia destroys drone near Russian border, NATO jets scrambled

Latvia's National Armed Forces said they used a BLAZE interceptor drone to eliminate a threat near the border with Russia on the evening of 1 November, after detecting an unidentified object in Latvian airspace, Polish outlet Defence24 reported.

An alert covering the Krāslava and Ludza municipalities in eastern Latvia was declared at 18:57 local time. The unidentified object left Latvian airspace and crossed into Russia at 19:16; three minutes later, the military decided to self-destruct the Latvian interceptor drone to avoid any risk of it crossing the border itself, and the alert was lifted at 19:30, the military said. An explosion from the self-destruction was heard in the area. The military did not identify the type or origin of the object that had entered its airspace, and did not confirm that it had been shot down.

Separately, Polish outlet WP Wiadomości reported that a drone of unknown origin crashed in Latvia's Balvi municipality, near the Russian border, shortly after midnight on Tuesday, prompting NATO fighter jets on Baltic Air Policing duty to be scrambled. Latvian authorities sent a mass mobile alert telling residents of the area to shelter indoors, and troops began a search operation to recover the wreckage and establish where it had come from.

It was the second airspace incident in the area within days: an unidentified object briefly entered Latvian airspace near the Russian border on Sunday before leaving after about 30 minutes, with an interceptor drone scrambled in response, WP Wiadomości said. The military did not disclose further details of that object's origin or flight path at the time.