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By Ellie Cook and Toby Meyjes
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Ukrainian drones strayed into Latvia and Estonia overnight, the Baltic nations said on Wednesday, after Kyiv targeted a major Baltic Sea port near NATO territory.
Latvian officials said the wreckage of a drone that had crossed over into its airspace from Russia early on Wednesday had been found near its borders with Russia and Belarus.
Separately, Estonian authorities said a drone had careened into the chimney of a power plant on its own frontier with Russia roughly an hour later.
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"Several" other drones violated Estonian airspace, Tallinn's defense minister Hanno Pevkur said in comments later carried by the country's ERR state broadcaster.
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Ukraine attacked the Russian port of Ust-Luga with waves of drones which caused a fire at the site, said the Leningrad region's governor. Ukraine's military said it had struck several areas of the facility, including devices for loading oil.
Ust-Luga is a key Russian oil export hub on the Baltic Sea, just across from the Estonian power plant damaged in the early hours of Wednesday. On Tuesday, fellow Baltic state Lithuania had said it was hit by drone from Ukraine aimed at attacking Russian oil assets.
Kyiv has vowed to continue targeting Moscow's oil and gas facilities which provide vital funds for its war operations. Ukraine's military attacked the Ust-Luga port area in August 2025.
Estonia's prosecutor general, Astrid Asi, said on Wednesday the drone "was not directed at Estonia" but an investigation is ongoing.
Latvia's defense minister, Andris Sprūds, shared images of the crash site near the Latvian border and described the drone as a Ukrainian weapon headed for Russian targets.
No one was reported injured in Latvia and Estonia overnight.
Drones have repeatedly breached NATO airspace since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, but have not so far been treated as attacks on the alliance.
NATO members are obliged to see assaults on any member state as an attack on all. It's meant to deter any adversary nations from attacking a part of NATO because it would have to face a response from all 32 alliance members.
Most incursions affect Poland and Romania, which border Ukraine. Airspace violations are rarer for the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
In Ukraine, meanwhile, Russia fired close to 1,000 drones on Tuesday in its largest attack on the country within 24 hours since the start of the war in 2022.
Eight people were killed after Moscow carried out unusual daytime strikes, shortly after firing hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at the country overnight. A maternity hospital and a UNESCO world heritage site were hit in western Ukraine.
Update 3/25/2026 at 5:35 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 3/25/2026 at 10:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and a new headline.
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