Two NATO members say Russian drones have violated their airspace

Two NATO members said on Sunday (September 8, 2024) that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighbouring Ukraine while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day.

A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday (September 8, 2024) as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, Romania’s Ministry of National Defence reported. It added Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions.

It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited zone along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

Later on Sunday (September 8, 2024), Latvia’s Defence Minister Andris Sprūds said that a Russian drone fell the day before near the town of Rezekne, and had likely strayed into Latvia from neighbouring Belarus.

Rezekne, home to over 25,000 people, lies some 55 km west of Russia and around 75 km from Belarus, the Kremlin’s close and dependent ally.

While the incursion into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, as recently as July this year.

Mircea Geoana, NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania’s former top diplomat, said on Sunday (September 8, 2024) morning that the military alliance condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on X.

Latvia’s military on Sunday (September 8, 2024) similarly said that there were no indications that Moscow or Minsk purposely sent a drone into the country. In a public statement, the military said it had identified the crash site, and that a probe was ongoing.

Sprūds, the Latvian defence minister, sought to downplay the significance of the drone incursion.

“I can confirm that there are no victims here and also no property is infringed in any way,” Defence Minister Andris Sprūds told the Latvian Radio on Sunday (September 8, 2024), adding that any risks in the event were immediately eliminated: “Of course, it is a serious incident, as it is once again a reminder of what kind of neighbouring countries we live next to.”

In Ukraine, two civilians died and four more suffered wounds in a nighttime Russian airstrike on the northern city of Sumy, the regional military administration reported. Two children were among those wounded, the administration said. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed later that day that its forces struck foreign pro-Kyiv fighters in a village on Sumy’s northern outskirts. It was not immediately clear whether this was a reference to the same attack.

In the Kharkiv region in the east, overnight shelling killed two elderly women, according to local Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

During the night, Ukrainian air defences shot down one of four cruise missiles and 15 of 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, Ukraine’s air force reported. It added that none of the cruise missiles had hit targets.

Later on Sunday (September 8, 2024), three women were killed after Russian forces shelled a village in the eastern Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported on the Telegram messaging app. Elsewhere in the province, rescue teams pulled the bodies of two men from the rubble of a hotel destroyed on Saturday (September 7, 2024) evening in a Russian airstrike, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service.

That same day, the death toll rose to 58 from the massive Russian missile strike that on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) blasted a military academy and nearby hospital in the eastern city of Poltava, regional Governor Filip Pronin reported. More than 320 others were wounded.

Since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the Russian military has repeatedly used missiles to smash civilian targets, sometimes killing scores of people in a single attack.

Poltava is about 350 km (200 miles) southeast of Kyiv, on the main highway and rail route between Kyiv and Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border.

The attack happened as Ukrainian forces sought to carve out their holdings in Russia’s Kursk border region after a surprise incursion that began August 6, as the Russian army hacks its way deeper into eastern Ukraine.

Russian forces continued their month-long grinding push towards the city of Pokrovsk and even ramped up attacks near the town of Kurakhove farther south, Ukraine’s General Staff reported.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday (September 8, 2024) its troops had taken Novohrodivka, a small town some 19 km (11 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk. An update published Saturday (September 7, 2024) evening by DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site, said Russian forces had “advanced” in Novohrodivka and captured Nevelske, a village in the southeast of the Pokrovsk district.

Pokrovsk, which had a prewar population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defence and supply routes and would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.

Elsewhere, falling debris from downed “aerial objects” injured two young boys and an adult in Russia’s Belgorod region, some 20 km from the Ukrainian border, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Sunday (September 8, 2024). Russia’s Defence Ministry the same day claimed that its forces had shot down multiple Ukrainian drones over the province, and a further one over the neighbouring Kursk region.