A drone coming from Russian airspace hit a chimney of a power plant in Estonia while another fell on Latvian territory, authorities in the two Baltic countries said Wednesday.
The reports came as Kyiv launched a barrage of almost 400 drones following Russia’s record aerial assault on Ukraine on Tuesday.
Authorities in both countries said that the drones had come in from Russian airspace, with Riga saying that the projectile that landed in Latvia appeared to be Ukrainian.
“A drone struck the chimney of the Auvere power plant. No one was injured in the incident,” Estonia’s internal security service said in a statement, adding that “the drone entered Estonian airspace from Russian airspace”.
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The Auvere power plant, operated by the Enefit Power group, is located in northeastern Estonia, near the town of Narva on the Russian border.
“These are the effects of Russia’s large-scale war of aggression,” said ISS Director General Margo Palloson, expressing concern about “the occurrence of such incidents in the future”.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said on her X account, however, that the drone that fell on Latvian territory was apparently Ukrainian.
The incidents occurred at about the same time that a Ukrainian drone attack set fire to oil facilities at Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, a major petroleum export hub about 25 kilometres from the border with Estonia.
The two Baltic countries are along a possible trajectory for drones targeting the region not far from Saint Petersburg.
Russian air defences downed 389 incoming Ukrainian drones, Russia’s defence ministry said Wednesday, in what was the largest reported overnight attack on Russian regions and Crimea since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.
It came a day after Russia fired almost 1,000 drones and 34 missiles at Ukraine in the space of 24 hours, extending its usual nighttime barrage into daylight hours in one of its biggest aerial attacks of the war. At least six people were killed and around 50 people were injured, Ukrainian authorities said.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)
