Baltic States Withdraw Overnight Drone Shelter Alerts

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued overnight shelter alerts over unidentified drones entering or threatening their airspace, then withdrew the warnings hours later. No injuries were reported in the Baltic countries, and the objects’ identity and origin were not established.

The alerts covered areas near the borders with Russia and Belarus. Lithuanian crisis officials said one warning included Kaunas, the country’s second-largest city, which has about 300,000 residents. The warnings urged people to seek shelter as military and civilian authorities monitored the activity.

Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre said NATO aircraft assigned to Baltic air policing were activated after an unidentified object was detected over Belarus moving toward the region. Latvia’s armed forces separately said interceptor drones and air-defence units were activated, and residents in two eastern regions were told to shelter.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said four drones had been detected across the region and that an attempt was made to shoot one down over northern Lithuania. He said debris from a NATO missile was later found on the ground. It was not clear whether the...