Eastern NATO Countries Call for Increased Air Defenses Because of Airspace Breaches

The leaders of 14 member states issued the call following a meeting held in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

An instructor from the Ukrainian company General Cherry demonstrates the operation of an anti-air interceptor drone designed to destroy Russian attack drones in the Kyiv region, on March 11, 2026. Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo

Leaders of NATO’s eastern member states said “repeated airspace violations on the Eastern Flank” highlight the urgent need to consolidate the alliance’s air defenses against missiles and drones, in a joint statement on May 13.

The leaders of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary—the so-called Bucharest Nine group—and the Nordic nations of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, released the statement after a summit in the Romanian capital.

The meeting was also attended by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with representatives from the United States also present as observers.

“Russia is and will remain the most significant, long-term and direct threat to Allies’ security,” the leaders said in the joint statement.

“We condemn Russia’s highly confrontational actions against Allies and partners, including sabotage, cyber-attacks, and a wide range of hybrid attacks and destabilising activities. Repeated airspace violations on the Eastern Flank underscore the urgent need to continue strengthening NATO’s air and missile defence, including against [unmanned aircraft system] threats.”

The leaders highlighted the European Union’s Eastern Flank Watch program, unveiled in October, which aims to “integrate the air defence and counter-drone systems with a set of ground defence systems with maritime security in the Baltic and Black Seas and systems for increased situational awareness, as well as internal security and border management.”

According to the statement, expanding the transatlantic defense industrial base by boosting production capacities, strengthening supply chains, and implementing efficient multinational procurement is necessary to address security challenges.

The statement also asserts the members’ commitment to working toward the goal of spending at least 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.

Stray Ukrainian Drones Hit Latvia

The call to boost aerial defenses builds on calls made by Latvia and Lithuania on May 7, after two suspected stray Ukrainian drones crossed over the border with Russia and crashed in Latvia, one of which exploded at an oil storage facility.

Police and firefighters said that four empty oil tanks were damaged at a storage facility in Rezekne, Latvia, about 25 miles from the Russian border and that debris believed to be from a crashed drone was found at the site.

Then-Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds told reporters that the drones were likely launched by Kyiv to attack Russia and accidentally strayed into the wrong side of the frontier.

“I have raised this with our allied partners, including within the NATO framework in this region, ​that the defense of our airspace is a shared responsibility,” Spruds said at a news conference ⁠near the crash site in the eastern part of the country.

“This is shared [NATO] airspace, and it is necessary to have [military] units here.”

On Feb. 26, Sweden said that its military had intercepted a suspected Russian drone off the south coast of the country on Feb. 25 while the Charles de Gaulle, a French aircraft carrier, was docked at the port of Malmo.

At the time, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson told public broadcaster Sveriges Television that the suspected violation of Swedish airspace occurred while a Russian military ship was in Swedish waters.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Feb. 27 that he was not aware of the incident, and that it was “quite absurd” to claim that the drone was Russian just because a Russian ship was nearby.

In September 2025, Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said air traffic restrictions had been introduced along the country’s eastern border with Belarus and Ukraine, following the downing of suspected Russian drones in the NATO member’s airspace.

Police and army inspect damage to a house destroyed by debris in the village of Wyryki-Wola, Poland, on Sept. 10, 2025. Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images

Polish authorities said at the time that a home in the village of Wyryki-Wola had likely been hit by a Russian drone that entered Poland’s airspace on the night of Sept. 9.

Polish Coordinator of Special Services Tomasz Siemoniak told Polish television later that month that the house was likely hit by a missile fired from a Polish F-16 fighter jet.

“Everything indicates that it was a missile fired by our plane, defending Poland, defending the fatherland, defending our citizens,” Siemoniak said at the time.

A Russian serviceman operates a "Supercam" drone in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, in this still from a video distributed by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on July 17, 2025. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

NATO has recently introduced three projects aimed at countering aggression from Moscow, named Baltic Sentry, Arctic Sentry, and Eastern Sentry.

Eastern Sentry, announced in September, is a military operation aimed at strengthening NATO’s eastern flank.

NATO said at the time that the operation would involve both traditional military capabilities and novel approaches, including “elements designed to address challenges associated with drones.”

Baltic Sentry, announced in January 2025, is a mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, following a spate of incidents in the region that heightened concerns about possible Chinese and Russian sabotage activities.

Arctic Sentry, announced in February, is a wide-scale military exercise in the Arctic and High North regions, also aimed at countering potential threats from Moscow and Beijing.

Victoria Friedman contributed to this report.