Fighter jets attached to NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled into the skies of eastern Europe early Sunday morning, May 17, after an unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crossed the Russian border into Latvian sovereign airspace. The cross-border incursion triggered emergency air raid warnings across multiple municipalities adjacent to the Russian Federation, prompting the Latvian military to immediately deploy additional ground-based anti-aircraft assets to reinforce the country’s eastern frontier.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Border lockdowns and NATO intervention According to an official statement published on X (formerly Twitter) by the National Armed Forces of Latvia, the air threat was registered during the early morning hours. Radar surveillance tracks detected a lone, unidentified drone crossing the state boundary directly from Russian territory. Authorities issued public security alerts to border communities, instructing residents to immediately seek interior shelter following the defensive “two-walls” rule, secure all entryways, and stay clear of glass windows. Alliance command scrambled supersonic fighter jets to intercept and shadow the radar track. The military subsequently confirmed that the acute air threat had been successfully eliminated after the drone shifted its flight telemetry and exited Latvian airspace. “Fighter jets participating in NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission were deployed,” the Latvian military added, confirming that alliance tracking networks monitored the object throughout the entire duration of the border breach.