Ukrainian drones targeting Russia enter NATO airspace, raising alarm in Baltic and Nordic states.

Ukraine’s drone war with Russia has spilled into NATO airspace, raising fresh alarm across Europe as both sides accuse each other of dangerous escalation. According to reports from The Independent and other accounts, Ukrainian drones launched at Russian targets have repeatedly crossed into the airspace of Baltic and Nordic NATO members, prompting emergency responses and renewed debate over how the alliance should help Kyiv without widening the conflict.

The most serious incident came on 19 May, when a NATO fighter jet shot down a drone over southern Estonia, according to reporting cited in the source material. Estonian officials later said they had never given Ukraine permission to use Estonian airspace for attacks on Russia. Similar incidents have been reported in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland since March, with drones either drifting off course or entering NATO territory while heading toward Russian targets in the northwestern part of the country, including oil export infrastructure in the Leningrad region.

The spread of these drones has become a political flashpoint. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said NATO allies should help Ukraine direct its drone operations “in the right directions,” while NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte blamed Russian electronic jamming for some of the drones veering off course. Rutte also dismissed Moscow’s accusations against Baltic states as “totally ridiculous,” according to the reports. The suggestion is that Russian interference may be helping send Ukrainian drones into neighboring countries, though the exact causes of individual incursions have not always been clear.

At the same time, Russia has tried to turn the incidents into its own diplomatic warning. Moscow has accused Latvia and other Baltic states of allowing Ukraine to launch drones from their territory, claims that Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine have rejected. Latvian and Lithuanian officials said their countries had not permitted any use of their land, sea or airspace for attacks on Russia. Ukrainian officials have also apologized to Estonia over the drone incident while insisting that Ukrainian forces were not using Estonian or Latvian territory for strikes.

The broader context is a war that has increasingly depended on long-range drones. Ukraine has used the technology to hit oil terminals, military sites and other infrastructure deep inside Russia, part of a campaign designed to put pressure on Moscow far from the front line. But as these attacks extend farther north and west, the risk of miscalculation has grown, especially along NATO’s eastern edge, where member states are already on high alert.

The issue matters not only because of the immediate danger to civilians and military personnel, but also because it tests NATO’s ability to manage a conflict that is no longer neatly contained within Ukraine’s borders. For frontline allies such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, even a stray drone can trigger questions about air defenses, rules of engagement and whether the alliance could be drawn into a direct confrontation with Russia. With Ukrainian long-range strikes continuing and Russia responding with its own missile and drone attacks on Kyiv, European governments are now facing a more volatile battlefield that increasingly reaches into their own territory.