Latvia closes skies over Russian border

Flights in the skies above the border will be closed for at least a week. The decision comes into effect at 18:00 local time (the same as Moscow time) on September 11.

The altitude at which aircraft and ships will be prohibited from flying is limited to six thousand meters. The closed zone will extend 50 kilometers from the republic's outer border.

The reason for such measures in Latvia was the incident with drones in Poland that occurred the day before.

The minister specified that the temporary no-fly zone would free up the area for NATO fighters and air defense operations. In addition, the authorities intend to expand the capabilities for testing acoustic surveillance systems, modeling UAV operations and counteraction to them, and deploy and prepare additional mobile combat units.

The entire Russian-Latvian border is part of the border of the Pskov region, the total length is 270.5 kilometers. The length of the Belarusian-Latvian border is just over 172 kilometers.

Earlier it became known that Poland had imposed flight restrictions – this affected the skies above the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. Flights there are restricted from September 10 to December 9. Only military aviation will be allowed to fly.