The war between Ukraine and Russia moves to the Baltic and puts the countries in the area on alert

BarcelonaThe Baltic countries have experienced "a complicated night," in the words of Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius. NATO has deployed fighter jets after at least four drones entered the airspace of the three Baltic states during Ukrainian attacks against Russia, which activated alarms in several cities in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, urging residents to seek shelter. Furthermore, Finland has temporarily closed the airspace in the southeast of the country.

All of this happened after Ukraine launched a drone attack against the Russian port of Ust-Luga, located at the mouth of the Luga River on the Gulf of Finland, which caused a fire, according to the governor of the Leningrad region, Alexandr Drozdenko, who reported three workers injured. He detailed that Russian anti-aircraft defenses shot down 150 drones over the region, which houses an important oil refinery, and that the attack also caused the disconnection of a power plant. In Saint Petersburg, the international airport temporarily halted operations, which forced several flights to land at Helsinki airport.

For months, Ukraine has been carrying out a strategy of attacking refineries and other facilities linked to Russia's oil and gas industry, which has also shifted the attacks to the Baltic Sea region. Some of the drones miss their targets and end up being diverted, which causes security alerts in neighboring countries. Early this Wednesday, authorities in Lithuania urged citizens of Kaunas, the second-largest city in the country, to seek shelter.

NATO planes made two attempts to shoot down a drone over Lithuania, without success, and the drone crossed into Latvian airspace, according to the Chief of the Defense Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Giedrius Premeneckas. In a press conference, he stated that the drone passed near "urbanized" territory in the vicinity of Kaunas, where it could not be shot down due to the risk it posed to the civilian population. "We can only assume that some of the drones involved in the attack against Russia have been diverted by electronic warfare measures, but there is no confirmed information on whether the drone was Ukrainian or Russian," added Premeneckas.

In Latvia and Estonia, alerts have also been sent to the mobile phones of residents in several areas of both countries. Finland, another Russian neighbor, has implemented temporary restrictions on airspace and sea space in the east of the Gulf of Finland, according to its defense forces on X, but they have already been lifted. "The restrictions have been a precautionary measure to guarantee the authorities' ability to operate and the safety of the people," they said.

Second day of talks in Abu Dhabi

In Ukraine, Russia has attacked six major electrical substations in the four central regions of Ukraine, according to Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi, who also said that Russian forces have attacked railways in the east and center of the country.

All this, before the start of the talks on the second day of trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States in Abu Dhabi, in an attempt to advance the peace process. The talks resumed this Tuesday, after being stalled for nine months. The three parties discussed new approaches to the two most sensitive issues: territory and security guarantees, and agreed to continue negotiating this Wednesday.