Baltic nations, Finland issue overnight drone warnings as Russia, Ukraine exchange strikes

By Andrius Sytas and Jekaterina Golubkova

VILNIUS, Nov 11 (Reuters) - NATO scrambled jets overnight after at least four drones strayed into the airspace of the Baltic states during Ukrainian strikes on Russia, officials said on Wednesday, triggering brief alerts to citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to seek shelter.

Ukrainian military drones straying into the airspace of Finland and the Baltics this year have fuelled concern that the Ukraine war is spilling into NATO countries that border Russia and its ally Belarus.

There were no reports of injuries on what Lithuania's Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius called "a difficult night". One of the warnings covered Kaunas, Lithuania's second-most populous city, home to about 300,000 people.

The incidents occurred on a night that Ukrainian dronesattacked Russia's northwest, home to major Baltic Sea export facilities and a big oil refinery, setting afire the Ust-Luga port area and injuring three people.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of using NATO airspace as cover for attacks, while Kyiv says Russian signal jamming sometimes sends some of its drones off course. The NATO nations generally blame Russia for such incidents, for igniting the war by invading its neighbour in 2022.

Two attempts were made to shoot down a drone over Lithuania but both failed, and it later crossed into neighbouring Latvia's airspace, Lithuanian armed forces Chief of Defence Staff Giedrius Premeneckas told a news conference.

"We can only assume some of the drones involved in the attack against Russia were diverted by electronic warfare measures, but there is no confirmed information as to whether the drone was Ukrainian or Russian," Premeneckas said.

Finland, another Russian neighbour, adopted temporary airspace and maritime curbs in the eastern Gulf of Finland on Wednesday, its defence forces said on X, but also withdrew them later.

"The restrictions were a precautionary measure to ensure the authorities' ability to operate and the safety of bystanders," they added.

Drone debris killed two in Russia's Smolensk region bordering Belarus, Russian newswires cited the local governor as saying.

TWO-DAY TALKS IN ABU DHABI

In Ukraine, an overnight Russian air strike knocked out power in parts of the industrial city Kryvyi Rih, injured one in the second-biggest city Kharkiv and another six in Zaporizhzhia, officials and emergency services said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports independently. Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians though both consider energy infrastructure to be valid targets.

The turmoil comes against the backdrop of a two-day meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi from Tuesday, as the United States makes a new push to end their war.

As Ukraineattacks Russian oil shipping ports on the Baltic Sea, some of its drones have missed their targets, prompting security warnings in neighbouring countries and even a government collapse this year in Latvia.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, Janis Laizans, Nerijus Adomaitis and Jekaterīna Golubkova; Writing by Stine Jacobsen and Anna Ringstrom; editing by Terje Solsvik, Clarence Fernandez and Kevin Buckland)