{"id":10728,"date":"2026-08-14T10:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10728\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T10:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:51:21","slug":"nato-jets-shoot-down-drone-in-latvian-airspace-ministry-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/10728\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO jets shoot down drone in Latvian airspace: ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIGA
\n\"NATO<\/p>\n

NATO<\/a> fighter jets<\/a> shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the country’s defense ministry confirmed on Aug. 14, followed by an announcement from the military.<\/p>\n

The interception came against a backdrop of heightened concern in Europe over unauthorised drone activity, as the Russia-Ukraine war grinds on more than four years.<\/p>\n

NATO “fighter jets have successfully shot down a foreign unmanned aerial vehicle that had entered Latvia<\/a> as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare,” the ministry wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The threat had ended, the armed forces said in a post on X, adding that allied fighter jets successfully destroyed the unmanned aerial vehicle that entered the NATO member state’s airspace.<\/p>\n

The EU and NATO member state of about 1.9 million inhabitants shares a border with Russia to the east.<\/p>\n

It and other countries along the alliance’s Eastern flank have experienced numerous drone incursions into its territory.<\/p>\n

Baltic Sea neighbour Finland also imposed temporary aviation and maritime restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Finland on Aug. 14, its defense forces said on X.<\/p>\n

It described the move as a precautionary measure aimed at ensuring the safety of bystanders and the operational capabilities of authorities to counter potential drones.<\/p>\n

Hours later, the governor of Russia’s northwest Leningrad region said air defences had shot down 54 Ukrainian drones.<\/p>\n

“A fire broke out at the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga following the attack,” regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on Telegram.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 10, French fighter jets deployed to NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission shot down a drone in Latvia, marking the first time the alliance’s rapid-reaction force has downed a stray drone over the country.<\/p>\n

German authorities last week found an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig airport, while operations at Hanover airport were disrupted after a drone entered restricted airspace, officials told AFP on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIGA NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the country’s defense ministry confirmed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[865,69,7],"class_list":["post-10728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-fighter-jets","tag-latvia","tag-nato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}