Two NATO members said Sunday that Russian drones have violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense reported. It added Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited zone along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage. Later on Sunday, Latvia’s Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said that a Russian drone fell the day before near the town of Rezekne, and had likely strayed into Latvia from neighboring Belarus. Rezekne, home to over 25,000 people, lies some 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Russia and around 75 kilometers (47 miles) from Belarus, the Kremlin’s close and dependent ally. While the incursion into Latvian airspace appeared to be a rare incident, Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on several occasions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, as recently as July this year. Mircea Geoana, NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania’s former top diplomat, said on Sunday morning that the military alliance condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace. “While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on X. Latvia’s military on Sunday similarly said that there were no indications that Moscow or Minsk purposely sent a drone into the country. In a public statement, the military said it had identified the crash site, and that a probe was ongoing. Sprūds, the Latvian defense minister, sought to downplay the significance of the drone incursion. “I can confirm that there are no victims here and also no property is infringed in any way,” Defense Minister Andris Sprūds told the Latvian Radio on Sunday, adding that any risks in the event were immediately eliminated: “Of course, it is a serious incident, as it is once again a reminder of what kind of neighboring countries we live next to.” Civilians reported killed in Ukraine In Ukraine, two civilians died and four more suffered wounds in a nighttime Russian airstrike on the northern city of Sumy, the regional military administration reported. Two children were among those wounded, the administration said. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed later that day that its forces struck foreign pro-Kyiv fighters in a village on Sumy’s northern outskirts. It was not immediately clear whether this was a reference to the same attack. In the Kharkiv region in the east, overnight shelling killed two elderly women, according to local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. During the night, Ukrainian air defenses shot down one of four cruise missiles and 15 of 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, Ukraine’s air force reported. It added that none of the cruise missiles had hit targets. Later on Sunday, three women were killed after Russian forces shelled a village in the eastern Donetsk region, Gov. Vadym Filashkin reported on the Telegram messaging app. Elsewhere in the province, rescue teams pulled the bodies of two men from the rubble of a hotel destroyed on […]