Russia is trying to turn a string of stray combat drones appearing over the Baltic countries into a political crisis between Ukraine and some of its staunchest allies. So far, the effort appears to have fallen flat.

Axar.az reports, citing Politico, that after a wave of drone incidents across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — blamed on Russia using electronic warfare to redirect Ukrainian drones into NATO airspace — Moscow accused the three Baltic countries of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for attacks on Russia and threatened them with retaliation. Baltic officials denied the charges.

A statement issued by the three governments late Friday said they "categorically reject Russia’s blatant disinformation campaign and its fabricated accusations following the airspace violations, which Russia shamelessly uses to mask its military failures."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also underlined that Russia is to blame.