Estonia's drone threat level was, however, elevated Friday following drone incursions in both Finland to the north and Latvia to the south.

Col. Uku Arnold, commander of the EDF's strategic communications department, said there had been no need to provide warnings to local residents, however, though the threat level was raised.

Civilians in both Finland and Latvia had received instructions to stay indoors when the incursions happened, in the small hours of Friday.

"In Estonia, we monitored the situation closely. The Defense Forces increased their vigilance measures, but the situation never reached that point where we would have had to warn people to be more alert or even to seek shelter," Arnold told ERR.

Drone incursions in recent months have usually happened along or near the eastern frontiers of Finland and the Baltic states, but Friday's incident in Finland saw drones stray 100 km inland, almost to Helsinki.

Arnold said the fact they had done so was a combination of intentions and drone interference systems deployed.

There is currently no unified standard within NATO countries on threat issuing, both in terms of criteria and tech, he added, though in Estonia's nearby neighbors the threat notification standards are quite similar, due to civil protection preparedness and military cooperation needs.

"Technical systems differ. Estonia's EE-Alarm emergency notification system is actually quite advanced by European standards, and it is continuing to develop," Arnold said, adding that geography also plays a role.

As to where Friday's drones were vectored, Arnold said he did not have precise information about what the Ukrainians had been targeting in Leningrad Oblast, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.

"There are many Russian military units in northwestern Russia, and Russian warships are also operating in international waters, including vessels from the shadow fleet supporting the war, so there may be many possible explanations," the colonel said.

He rejected theories of a Russian false flag attack — i.e., that the drones had been deployed from Russia and set up to resemble Ukrainian drones.

"I would not like to speculate at this point about anyone's malicious intent. Over the past few days, this has been a wartime situation. Drones have been flying in northwestern Russia, in the St. Petersburg region, and the air threat has primarily been on the Russian side. What is happening in neighboring areas is more of a side effect to that," Arnold explained.

Latvian authorities later declared the threat over, with most schools resuming normal operations except in the Ludza region, where classes remained canceled.

Finnish authorities said Friday morning a suspected drone incursion over Uusimaa, which makes up the bulk of Finland's southern coastline, no longer poses any danger, Yle reported.

Local residents had been advised to stay indoors during the early morning hours of Friday. Flights to and from Helsinki Airport were temporarily suspended. Some international flights, including arrivals from Japan, were diverted to Tallinn, Stockholm, and also to Rovaniemi, in the far north of Finland.

Finnish Air Force Hornet fighter jets were deployed in the area in response to the suspected drone activity, believed to target the area between Helsinki and Porvoo, around 50 km to the east of the Finnish capital.

Finland's President Alexander Stubb said the country faces no direct military threat, and Finnish authorities declared the threat over, lifted restrictions, and reopened Helsinki-Vantaa Airport around 7:00 a.m.

Meanwhile in Latvia, armed forces issued an air emergency alert overnight for the eastern districts of Rēzekne, Ludza, Balvi, and Krāslava, LSM reported. NATO Baltic Air Policing fighter jets were scrambled in response too. As in Finland, residents were advised to stay indoors and also close windows and follow the "two-wall principle" for protection.

Latvia said its eastern border air defense capabilities had been reinforced with additional military units. Latvia had seen political turmoil this week, culminating in the resignation of Evika Siliņa as prime minister following a coalition collapse. One of the issues had been response to drone incursions in Latvia.

Ukraine has been able to freely launch drone strikes on Russian infrastructure and other sites, to the extent there had been concerns in Russia about the safety of civilians attending the May 9 Victory Day events. Due in part to its vast size, Russia has difficulty countering these strikes.

In March, strikes on the oil port of Ust-Luga, just 25 km from Estonia's border as the crow flies, saw a small number of drones straying into or near Estonian airspace, including one which struck a power station chimney close to that border.

More information on the Estonian national warning including on how to download the early warning app is here.

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