Latvia Issues Air Alerts in Three Regions as Lithuania Scrambles NATO Jets

Alerts in eastern Latvia

Late on 10 November, authorities in Latvia's Ludza region raised an orange-level warning, the higher of the two alert levels in use. About 20 minutes later, yellow-level warnings followed in the Augšdaugava and Krāslava regions, and Krāslava was later upgraded to orange (В Латвии объявляли воздушную тревогу в трех краях, в Литве поднимали истребители НАТО – NV) (Винищувачі НАТО екстрено підняли за тривогою: над якими країнами нависла загроза – TSN). Latvia's armed forces put air defence units and interceptor drone teams on standby.

Under an orange alert, residents are advised to stay indoors and follow the two-wall rule. A yellow alert requires no additional action from the public.

Alerts spread and were lifted

By about 00:20, the threat level in all three regions was lowered to yellow, and at 00:40 the alert was cancelled entirely. The national broadcaster LSM reported that an unidentified object had left Latvian airspace, though it did not say what the object was or where it came from.

Later reports indicated that alerts were also issued in several more regions during the night, including Balvi, Aizkraukle, Jēkabpils, Madona, Cēsis, Smiltene and Gulbene (Латвія оголошувала повітряну загрозу в низці регіонів: залучили винищувачі НАТО – Suspilne) (У країнах Балтії оголошували тривогу через загрозу в повітряному просторі – Європейська правда).

Lithuania and the wider Baltic region

Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre said NATO fighter jets had been scrambled to guard the country's airspace. Local outlets reported that aircraft approaching Vilnius were diverted.

The alerts came during a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian port of Ust-Luga, close to the Estonian border, which caused a large fire there. Estonia also issued air threat warnings across several counties and scrambled NATO jets before lifting them after about three hours. Lithuania's crisis centre head said some drone incidents had been exploited by Russia to spread disinformation, including claims that Lithuania was letting Ukrainian drones use its airspace, which he called false (У Литві попереджають: Росія використовує інциденти з дронами для поширення фейків – Українська правда).

Lithuania's National Security Commission was due to meet to discuss shelter availability and access.

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