NATO countries on the fringes of the conflict in Ukraine say their airspace is being increasingly violated by Russian drones.
Romanian authorities reported that a Russian drone flew into Romanian territory during night-time attacks on Ukraine on Sunday, local time, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said these types of incidents were becoming more frequent along NATO's eastern flank.
Poland has also flagged repeated Russian incursions.
Analysts say there are suspicions Moscow may be testing the Western alliance, and little is being done to stop it.
Now countries close to the war are getting more vocal, calling for greater powers to protect themselves and take out Russian threats.
Romania says violations 'will continue'
Romania shares a 650-kilometre border with Ukraine, and has territory that lies a few hundred metres from Ukrainian Danube River ports, which are frequent Russian targets.
The country has confirmed drone fragments have been found in its territory on several occasions since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Over the weekend, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that an unspecified number of Russian drones had entered Romanian airspace.
Bucharest sent out F-16 warplanes to monitor the situation early Sunday and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions.
It later found "pieces of a Russian drone" at an "impact site" on the outskirts of the village of Periprava in Tulcea, along the Romanian-Ukrainian border.
[map]Bucharest strongly condemned the "renewed violation", calling Moscow's actions "illegal attacks".
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the situation on the ground was not "serious", but said he was certain the breaches "will continue".
Romania was said to be considering laws that would allow it to shoot down drones invading its airspace in peacetime.
But Stephan Fruehling from the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre said NATO had restrictions on how members could respond to Russia.
NATO leaders have repeatedly said any reactions would risk dragging the alliance directly into the conflict.
"NATO is extremely reluctant to shoot down any Russian drones, even if they enter NATO airspace," Professor Fruehling said.
"It would be a big step for a small country, or a fairly exposed country in the east, to break that consensus and do something on a national basis."
Romania would need the help of NATO's common air defence system if it was to try to shoot down any Russian drones entering its airspace.
The United Staes, which is NATO's largest and most influential member, also places restrictions on Western allies using its weapons against Russia.
Latvia stresses need for better protection
Latvia's defence ministry said an unmanned Russian drone had crashed in the Rezekne region in the east of the country, having flown in through Belarus on Sunday.
Rezekne is a town of about 25,000 people, which sits 55km west of Russia and 75km from Belarus, a close ally of the Kremlin.
Latvia's armed forces informed the NATO chain of command about the incident, and were also conducting an investigation.
The defence ministry said there were no indications so far that Russia or Belarus intentionally sent a drone into the country.
But Defence Minister Andris Spruds said it was confirmation Latvia needed to strengthen its eastern border.
And to do that, it wants help from NATO.
"Latvian airspace is part of NATO airspace," the defence ministry said in a statement after the weekend's incident.
"At the NATO Summit in Washington, NATO member states agreed to strengthen air defence on NATO's eastern flank by introducing a more active rotational air defence model."
Russia 'testing' NATO
Mircea Geoana, NATO's outgoing deputy secretary-general, condemned Russia's violations but did not say they were targeted attacks.
"While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous," he wrote on X.
Professor Fruehling said NATO was being accused by some of its members of not doing enough.
NATO's Article 5 stipulates that if a NATO country is attacked, all member nations will come to its defence.
Professor Fruehling said it was hard to imagine all the incursions were happening "completely accidentally".
"There is a kind of suspicion, at least in some quarters, that Russia is testing NATO here and pushing the boundaries," he said.
"And to some extent, deliberately flying into NATO airspace is a way of circumventing Ukrainian air defence."
This week, Lithuania joined calls for "a strong allied response" to incursions that "are now treated as routine".
"Nothing should be landing on Ukraine, or Latvia, or anywhere on NATO territory, but this is the new reality our inaction has allowed to emerge," Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X.
Poland, in particular, has been pushing for deals that allow it to defend itself against Russian drones and missiles.
The country's foreign minister said Poland and other nations bordering Ukraine had a "duty" to shoot down threats.
"Membership in NATO does not trump each country's responsibility for the protection of its own airspace – it's our own constitutional duty," Mr Sikorski told the Financial Times.
"I'm personally of the view that, when hostile missiles are on course of entering our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defence [to strike them] because once they do cross into our airspace, the risk of debris injuring someone is significant."
A stray Ukrainian missile struck the southern Polish village of Przewodow in 2022, killing two people.
Poland has since reported several other incidences of Russian missiles and drones entering its territory.
In July, Warsaw and Kyiv signed a security agreement which included "examining rationale and feasibility" for Poland to intercept drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace that were headed towards its country.
Poland said any action would need to be green-lit by NATO, but secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg was quick to restate the alliance's position that it "will not be involved in this conflict".
"NATO's policy is unchanged," he said.
Russia has been intensifying its missile and drone strikes across Ukraine over the past fortnight, which has forced Poland to activate its aircraft on several occasions.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has redoubled his calls for allies such as Poland to join Ukraine in defending against attacks.
Professor Fruehling said not allowing NATO countries to shoot down Russian drones or use US weapons was giving Moscow an advantage.
"If they keep flying over Poland and Romania and NATO doesn't do anything, it creates credibility issues and obviously a lot of tension in the in the alliance," he said.
"It's not a very satisfactory situation, and it doesn't look like it's going to change."
ABC/wires
