{"id":45167,"date":"2026-08-14T21:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45167"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:09:56","slug":"foreign-drone-over-latvia-shot-down-by-nato-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45167","title":{"rendered":"Foreign drone over Latvia shot down by NATO jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Latvian military said a drone that entered the country&#8217;s airspace overnight was shot down by NATO Baltic Air Policing jets. File Photo by Valda Kalnina\/EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">Aug. 14 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> The Latvian military said a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/drones\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Drones\" class=\"tpstyle\">drone<\/a> that entered the country&#8217;s airspace overnight was shot down by NATO Baltic Air Policing jets.<\/p>\n<p>The country&#8217;s armed forces reported <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Latvijas_armija\/status\/2088070405466529903\" target=\"_blank\">on X<\/a> that the unmanned aerial vehicle entered the country&#8217;s airspace near the Russian boarder overnight, triggering air raid sirens in the municipalities of Aug\u0161daugava, Prei\u013ci, R\u0113zekne and Balvi about 4 a.m. local time.\n<\/p>\n<p>NATO scrambled Italian Eurofighters based in Lithuania and Turkish F-16s based in Estonia, and the drone was <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Latvijas_armija\/status\/2088078755503743210\" target=\"_blank\">successfully downed<\/a> near the village of Rug\u0101ji.<\/p>\n<p>Sandra Kapteine, head of the Rug\u0101ji village administration, told the Latvian Information Agency that the drone was shot down in a wooded area and there were no injuries resulting from the incident, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/nato-jets-shoot-down-drone-over-latvia\/\" target=\"_blank\">Politico reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Latvian National Armed Forces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mod.gov.lv\/lv\/zinas\/latvijas-gaisa-telpa-sabiedroto-iznicinataji-notrieca-arvalstu-bezpilota-lidaparatu-0\" target=\"_blank\">in a news release<\/a> said the foreign drone entered Latvian airspace &#8220;as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The release cautioned that similar incidents could happen in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the Russian aggression in Ukraine is ongoing, the recurrence of such cases when a foreign unmanned aircraft enters or approaches Latvian airspace is possible,&#8221; officials wrote.\n<\/p>\n<p>Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AndrisKulbergs\/status\/2088130986210968046\" target=\"_blank\">wrote on X<\/a> that the incident serves as &#8220;a confirmation that Latvian airspace is protected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the same time, such incidents remind us that we must continue to strengthen the surveillance and anti-drone capabilities of Latvia&#8217;s eastern border in order to be able to detect, identify and neutralize any potential threat as quickly as possible,&#8221; Kulbergs wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Then incident led Finland <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/08\/14\/nato-drone-latvia.html\" target=\"_blank\">to temporarily restrict<\/a> airspace early Friday, but the Finnish Defense Forces said no drones entered the country&#8217;s airspace and the restrictions were lifted shortly after 7 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>A drone previously entered Latvian airspace in June, was similarly shot down by NATO allies. The Latvian National Armed Forces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mod.gov.lv\/lv\/zinas\/latvijas-gaisa-telpa-sabiedroto-iznicinataji-notrieca-arvalstu-bezpilota-lidaparatu\" target=\"_blank\">said that incident was also<\/a> &#8220;a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"slide-image-container\" onclick=\"st_ss_sh329();\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/collection\/ph\/upi\/16775\/061b525d8199863ee961b54d5ad8e9cc\/Historic-August-moments-through-the-years_1_1.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%;\" width=\"648\" height=\"431\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"stph_caption\">Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famed &#8220;I Have a Dream&#8221; speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech galvanized the nation&#8217;s civil rights movements and led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. File photo by UPI | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/News_Photos\/lp\/061b525d8199863ee961b54d5ad8e9cc\/\" target=\"_blank\">License Photo<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Latvian military said a drone that entered the country&#8217;s airspace overnight was shot down by NATO Baltic Air Policing jets. File Photo by Valda Kalnina\/EPA Aug. 14 (UPI) &#8212; The Latvian military said a drone that entered the country&#8217;s airspace overnight was shot down by NATO Baltic Air Policing jets. The country&#8217;s armed forces&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/1731786722203\/2026\/1\/08c6b74517d054103acb9dfe3ed18e85\/v1.5\/Foreign-drone-over-Latvia-shot-down-by-NATO-jets.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}