Drones From the Ukraine War Increasingly Stray Into NATO Neighbors

The drones central to the war between Russia and Ukraine are increasingly going off course and crossing into neighboring states, The New York Times reported, threatening countries such as Lithuania and Romania that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and are not part of the fighting. The pattern is a direct result of the scale at which both sides now launch unmanned aircraft.

That scale is large and rising. Russia's Defense Ministry, through the state agency TASS, said air defenses destroyed 140 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones overnight across Russian regions, with one person injured and homes set on fire in the Belgorod region. Russian outlets also reported that air defenses brought down 20 drones in an attack on Sevastopol, the Crimean port city, where one person was wounded.

The problem is one that neither Moscow nor Kyiv controls. A drone that loses its guidance can cross a border and fall on the territory of a state that has no part in the conflict, raising the possibility of casualties and of an unintended confrontation with NATO. European governments near the fighting are now investing in detection systems and shelters precisely because the threat arrives by accident rather than by intention.

The timing increases the concern. As the United States speeds up the withdrawal of its forces from Europe, the countries most exposed to these stray drones are being asked to fill a security gap with fewer American troops on the continent. The technology that has made the war cheaper to conduct is also making its effects harder to contain beyond the front.