NATO jets down drone over Latvia; Finland restricts Gulf of Finland airspace

NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that had entered Latvian airspace in the early hours of August 14, 2026, Latvia's National Armed Forces said. The interception occurred during a NATO air defense mission after an air threat alert was issued for areas near the Russian border; the alert was later lifted. Latvian officials said the type of drone, its operator and its point of origin have not yet been identified.

At around the same time, Finland temporarily restricted aviation and maritime traffic in the eastern Gulf of Finland, citing security concerns linked to the airspace incursion. Finnish authorities have previously imposed similar precautionary restrictions when drones operating near the Russian border were believed at risk of straying into Finnish territory, including an earlier instance on August 3.

The incident coincided with reports from Russia of a large drone attack originating from Ukraine. The governor of Russia's Leningrad region, which borders Finland and Estonia and includes St. Petersburg, said Russian forces had shot down 15 drones overnight.

This is the latest in a series of drone incursions into NATO airspace around the Baltic Sea amid the ongoing exchange of drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine. In a comparable episode on June 8, a French Air and Space Force Rafale operating under NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission shot down a drone that had crossed into Latvia from Russia, which Latvian authorities attributed to Russian electronic warfare. Separately, a Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down a drone over southern Estonia on May 19, with debris landing near a village.