Baltic presidents and EU chief discuss rising drone incidents in Vilnius

The presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Vilnius on Tuesday to address the increasing number of drone incidents in the region, the Lithuanian presidency announced.

Gitanas Nausėda, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Alar Karis and von der Leyen discussed regional security, airspace surveillance, and the strengthening of anti-drone capabilities on NATO’s eastern flank. The talks also covered boosting Europe’s defence industry, EU support for Baltic defence capabilities, critical infrastructure protection, and closer coordination in responding to security threats.

Recent months have seen a rise in cases of explosive-laden drones entering Baltic airspace. While authorities initially suggested these were stray Ukrainian drones disoriented by Russian countermeasures, there is growing consensus that Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones toward Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland.

Last week, von der Leyen stated that Russia and Belarus bear direct responsibility for the drone incidents in the Baltics, calling Moscow’s public threats against these states “completely unacceptable.” A Russian envoy to the UN claimed Moscow had intelligence indicating Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic nations, warning that NATO membership would not shield them from retaliation. Riga dismissed the allegations as disinformation.