Fighter jets scrambled to shoot down drone that entered Nato airspace

A Ukrainian drone was sent towards NATO by Russia (Picture: Reuters)

NATO jets scrambled today to shoot down a drone that crossed into Latvian airspace close to its border with Russia.

The incursion in the Bali municipality came amid a heavy Ukrainian strike on the major Russian oil post Ust-Luga,which ignited infernos at the Gulf of Finland complex.

The kamikaze drone had been redirected into Latvian airspace by Russian ‘electromagnetic warfare’,Riga’s Defence Ministry said.

‘NATO Baltic Air Policing mission fighters were scrambled in response to the threat in Latvian airspace,’ they added.

Airspace threats had been declared in five border municipalities in the Baltic state,with airspace curbs also imposed in Finland. 

Fighters ‘successfully shot down a foreign unmanned aerial vehicle that had entered Latvia as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.’

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.The drone was likely Ukrainian and involved in a mass four-hour strike on the Leningrad region around St Petersburg – but was disrupted and redirected by Russian air defences. The Russian authorities confirmed that the Ust-Luga was ablaze,and had suffered damage as the country’s air defences overnight downed 553 Ukrainian drones. It is Russia’s biggest Baltic port—a vital oil-export and sanctions-evasion hub with revenues sustaining Vladimir Putin’s war economy. The threat to NATO airspace followed concerning incidents in other alliance states amid warnings of Russian provocations in Western states.An explosion tore through an Italian ammunition plant that supplies the Ukrainian armed forces,and one person was killed and six injured at an oil terminal explosion in the Port of Rotterdam,at a facility linked to Gunvor Energy,founded by close Putin associate Gennady Timchenko.Putin was also hit by a major fire at the October Revolution Shipbuilding Plant in Blagoveshchensk,six time zones east of Moscow,where a fuel and lubricants warehouse was ablaze.It was not immediately clear if the inferno was linked to Putin’s war. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.