Latvia's military said two NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered the country's airspace on Monday — the latest in a series of drone-related incidents in eastern European NATO countries linked directly to Russia's ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Latvian military confirmed the drone had entered Latvian airspace, "as a result of Russian electronic warfare," but did not specify the origin of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Ukrainian drones have previously crashed in all three Baltic states, which all share borders with Russia, with officials blaming the inadvertent incursion on Russian electronic warfare. Russia uses jamming technology to divert Ukrainian attack drones considered a threat to its territory.

In a separate incident, a drone crashed down and exploded on a field in eastern Moldova, which shares a border with Ukraine but is not a NATO member. Moldova's defense ministry said in a statement that the drone was seen entering the country's airspace in the early hours of Monday as "a massive Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine took place."

"Regardless of the drone's origin, responsibility for any drone that lands on the territory of the Republic of Moldova lies with Russia," Moldova's foreign ministry said in a post on Telegram, according to the AFP news agency.

The incidents come less than two weeks after two Russian drones exploded over Romania, one of which hit an apartment building near the border with Ukraine, wounding two people.

Repeated incursions into the airspace of neighboring countries across eastern Europe in recent months have stoked concerns of a possible expansion of Russia's war on Ukraine into NATO territory.

On May 19, a Romanian fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia and, a day later, another drone flying toward the Lithuanian capital Vilnius prompted authorities to issue an air raid alert, sending residents rushing for shelters.

The week after those incursions, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told the Reuters news agency that Russia was "desperately now using any kind of opportunity to divide the Western part of the world and ... to put more pressure on Ukraine not to launch these attacks."

Moscow has previously accused Ukraine of using NATO countries as a shield to deliver strikes deep into Russian territory.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Nordic-Baltic countries, which include those countries that have seen their airspace violated by drones, said in late May that Russia was using the incidents "to divert attention from its illegal war and to intimidate NATO Allies."

"Incidents involving drones entering NATO airspace are a direct consequence of Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine," the Nordic-Baltic countries said in their joint statement, stressing that they had "never allowed their territory or airspace to be used for these attacks against targets in Russia."

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