Key facts
- Latvia and Lithuania said NATO air defense fighter jets were activated over the drone warnings.
- Finland's Defense Forces called the Gulf of Finland restrictions a precaution to protect bystanders and authorities' ability to counter possible drones.
- Lithuania's crisis management center said a drone crossed from Belarus into Polish airspace, then was detected in Lithuanian airspace.
- Residents of Kaunas and Marijampolė areas in Lithuania and Smiltene and Gulbene municipalities in Latvia were told to seek shelter.
- Leningrad region governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said Russia downed 92 drones near the Finnish border overnight.
- Two St. Petersburg-bound flights landed at Helsinki-Vantaa while St. Petersburg airport was temporarily closed, the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard said.
Latvia and Lithuania warned residents in several regions early on November 11 to seek shelter from unidentified drones entering their airspace from the direction of Russia or Belarus, and said NATO air defense fighter jets were activated, Reuters reported.
In Lithuania, the crisis management center said a drone was detected in Belarus near the Lithuanian border and flew into Polish airspace, and was later detected in Lithuanian airspace. Residents of at least the Kaunas area and the Marijampolė area, which borders Poland and Russia's Kaliningrad region, were told to seek shelter. In Latvia, warnings covered at least the Smiltene and Gulbene municipalities; Latvia had also warned residents of the Ludza municipality on the evening of November 10, and that restriction was lifted at 1 a.m. on November 11.
Finland's Defense Forces said on X that it imposed a temporary airspace restriction in the eastern Gulf of Finland at 2:09 a.m. and a maritime restriction at 2:15 a.m. on November 11, describing them as precautionary measures to protect bystanders and the authorities' ability to counter possible drones. The Defense Forces said it has set such restrictions in the Gulf of Finland several times before, including in connection with Ukraine's defense against Russia.
Leningrad region governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on Telegram that Russia shot down 92 drones overnight near its border with Finland in the Leningrad region. According to the Kyiv Independent, Ukraine struck the Ust-Luga port on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland with drones, and Drozdenko said the strike had caused a fire in the port area on preliminary information. Explosions were heard in several other Russian regions overnight, according to the report.