Two drones entered Latvian airspace from Russian territory and crashed in the eastern Latgale region overnight on May 7, 2026, with one striking an oil storage facility in the city of Rēzekne, the Latvian National Armed Forces said.
The country’s military announced that the unmanned aerial vehicles had come down on Latvian soil, with units from the National Armed Forces, the State Police, and the State Fire and Rescue Service deployed to the scene. There were no reports of injuries.
Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Sprūds told national broadcaster LSM that the drones had probably been launched by Ukraine against targets inside Russia. Sprūds added that NATO Baltic Air Policing fighters had been summoned to the area. The minister did not say which detachment had been scrambled, with French Rafale fighters currently deployed alongside Spanish Eurofighters in Šiauliai, Lithuania.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas subsequently confirmed that the jets took off from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania to patrol Latvian airspace, returning to base at around 6:00 a.m. Kaunas also said no airspace violations had been recorded in Lithuania itself.
Oil storage facility damaged in Rēzekne
Kur ir 🇷🇺robeža, un kur ir Rēzekne👇🏻
Mums tiešām nav nekādu iespēju šamos notriekt, vismaz lai nelido virs pilsētas? pic.twitter.com/2dY0a60UFw— Nepareizais (@realNepareizais) May 7, 2026
Latvian police and firefighters said four empty oil tanks were damaged at a storage facility in Rēzekne, located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Russian border. Possible drone debris was recovered at the site, where emergency services extinguished a smoldering area of around 30 square meters inside one of the tanks. The State Police received the initial call regarding smoke at the facility on Komunāla Street at around 3:30 a.m.
Latvian authorities issued cell broadcast warnings to residents of border regions, asking them to stay indoors, close windows, and avoid approaching any low-flying or suspicious objects.
Māris Tutins, a spokesperson for Latvia’s armed forces, told Latvian Radio that the military had received several indications overnight that drones could enter Latvian airspace. Mobile air defense groups were activated in response, and additional units were dispatched to reinforce the country’s eastern border.
The National Armed Forces subsequently announced that the airspace threat had ended, and warned that further incidents involving foreign unmanned aircraft entering or approaching Latvian airspace remain possible for as long as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine continues.
Edvards Smiltēns, a Latvian lawmaker, publicly challenged Defense Minister Sprūds over the incident, arguing that the civil defense warning system had either failed or responded too slowly, and calling on Sprūds to answer publicly to parliament for Latvia’s ability to protect its citizens.
Recurring incidents along NATO’s eastern flank
The incident is the latest in a series of drone overspills affecting Latvia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In September 2025, the tail section of a Russian Gerbera decoy drone washed ashore near Ventspils on the Baltic coast, while a Russian Shahed-type drone had crashed in Gaigalava parish in September 2024.
A foreign drone, later confirmed as Ukrainian, crashed in the Krāslava district on March 25, 2026, after entering Latvian airspace from Russia. The same morning, a drone entering Estonian airspace from Russia struck the chimney of the Auvere power plant in eastern Estonia, with no injuries reported. Two days earlier, Lithuania’s prime minister said a military drone had crashed into a lake in the Varėna district, also launched by Ukraine in an attack aimed at Russia’s oil export infrastructure.
Riga has progressively tightened its eastern airspace regime in response. Following the September 2025 Russian drone incursions into Poland, Latvia closed parts of its airspace along the Russian and Belarusian borders during the Zapad exercises. Partial nighttime restrictions have remained in place since October 2025.
