At their summit in the Turkish capital, Ankara, NATO leaders decided to turn the alliance’s rotating Baltic Air Policing mission into an air defence mission, ERR reported. The change will allow NATO fighter aircraft to respond more rapidly to threats in Baltic airspace. NATO’s air operations centre in Uedem, Germany, will have authority to decide…
Lithuania’s incoming new coalition government may try to resume official dialogue with neighbouring Belarus on reopening transport links and trade, The Baltic Sentinel reports. Political analyst Vytautas Bruveris noted that many rural voters of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) and the Lithuanian Union of Farmers and Greens (LVZS), especially in eastern Lithuania, were tired…
French fighter jets within NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission shot down a drone in eastern Latvia in the morning of 8 June 2026, the Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS) announced, LSM reports. NBS said that the drone entered Latvian airspace due to Russian “electromagnetic warfare,” TVNET reported. Eyewitness said that the incident occurred near the village…
Latvia’s security situation has not improved and has become more complex, President Edgars Rinkevics stated, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview on TV24, Rinkevics warned that Russia was becoming more unpredictable and that Latvia must be prepared to respond to various kinds of Russian provocations. At the same time, he noted that the threat posed…
Recent drone incidents in the Baltic States are part of Russia’s strategy to destabilise democratic societies in the region, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, BNS reports. Speaking after a meeting with Baltic presidents in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, von der Leyen stressed the need for EU unity in support of the three…
The Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS) has introduced a new two-tier system for mobile alerts informing the public of potential security threats, LSM reports. Alerts are now either yellow or orange, depending on the assessed seriousness of the threat. Yellow alerts will warn of possible threats in Latvian airspace requiring no immediate action from residents,…
Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers condemned Russian threats to attack the Baltic States amid Ukrainian drone strikes, Reuters reported. Earlier, Russia claimed that Ukraine was using NATO airspace as cover for drone attacks on Russian targets. In a joint statement, the NB8 foreign ministers rejected “Russia’s blatant disinformation campaign and false claims, supported by Belarus,…
NATO has the means to destroy air defence and missile bases in Russia’s Kaliningrad region, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys stated, BNS reported. Speaking in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Budrys said that “we must show the Russians that we can penetrate the little fortress they have built in Kaliningrad,” LETA reported. Also, he…
The presidents of the Baltic States strongly condemned airspace violations by drones flying in from Russia and Belarus, ERR reported. In a joint statement, the three presidents rejected Russia’s disinformation campaign and threats related to the drone incursions, saying that Russia was trying to undermine Ukraine’s right to defend itself against Russian aggression. They reiterated…
