By Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans
VILNIUS/RIGA, May 19 (Reuters) - Ukraine blamed Russia on Tuesday for steering one of its drones into Estonian airspace where a NATO jet shot it down, the latest cross-border drone incident that has caused a political uproar in the Baltic states.
Latvia issued a first air threat alert over a possible drone entering its airspace on Tuesday, telling residents near the Russian border to stay indoors, with NATO Baltic Air Police jets summoned to the area. It later said
it found no evidence that a drone had entered its air space.
It declared a second air threat alert after that, over two counties bordering Russia, leading to a fresh deployment of NATO fighter jets.
"Russia continues to redirect Ukrainian drones into the Baltics with the use of its electronic warfare," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on X. "We apologise to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents."
He also said Kyiv was not using Latvian or Estonian territory to launch drone attacks on Russia, which the Baltic countries echoed.
"Our legitimate military targets are located in Russia; and we use the Russian airspace to get to them," he said.
The Russian embassies in Estonia and Latvia did not immediately reply to emailed requests for comment.
Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including around the Baltic. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of NATO members Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which all border Russia.
The Latvian government last week resigned over its handling of the incursions.
DRONE SHOT DOWN WITH A MISSILE
In Estonia, the drone entered the country's airspace at around noon (0900 GMT) on Tuesday, coming from Russia and into the southeastern part of the country, the Estonian military said in a statement.
It was shot down by a Romanian NATO fighter jet on a training flight at 12:14 p.m. (0914 GMT), with a single missile.
"The incident occurred under the conditions of heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia," the Estonian military added.
The drone had been under surveillance before it entered Estonia, it added, with the decision to shoot it down taken to "minimise the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure".
NATO confirmed a Romanian jet had shot down a drone over Estonian airspace and said an investigation was ongoing. It said NATO "is ready and able to react to any potential air threats".
CANCELLED TRAINS, EXAMS
In Latvia, the air alert led to some scenes of panic in the border region with Russia, with trains suspended, national exams for ninth-grade school students stopped and grocery shops closing down, according to local media reports.
Estonia identified the drone shot down there as Ukrainian, but both Baltic states blamed the incidents on Moscow, and said Ukraine had the right to strike Russian military targets to weaken Moscow's ability to wage war.
"These incidents are the direct result of Russia's war and provocations. Estonia is strengthening cooperation with Ukraine to enhance our air defence and counter-drone capabilities," Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a post on X.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Ukraine would send experts to Latvia to help protect the country's skies.
Finnish authorities on May 15 warned of suspected drone activity in the country's capital region, telling people to stay indoors and suspending traffic at Helsinki's airport for three hours.
The Finnish military had scrambled fighter jets and other emergency services, but no drones were eventually found.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Janis Laizans in Riga and Essi Lehto in Helsinki, additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels, Niklas Pollard in Stockholm, Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Writing by Anna Ringstrom and Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Peter Graff and Sharon Singleton)
