Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace — including over Poland and the Baltic states — cannot be considered accidental, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs stressed at a press conference on Tuesday after meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Rinkēvičs reminded that 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week. In his view, this could have been a deliberate provocation, incompetence, or a combination of both — and any of these options is alarming. He called NATO’s decision to launch the “Eastern Shield” mission and strengthen air defence on the eastern flank a correct move.
The Latvian president also emphasised that these incidents reveal shortcomings in NATO’s counter-drone defence, as using expensive air defence missiles against cheap drones is not effective.
Rinkēvičs said he could not speculate on any link between this incident and the ongoing Russian–Belarusian military exercise Zapad, but
stressed the need to be prepared for similar cases.
Finnish President Stubb added that Russia will continue to test NATO’s capabilities and patience, agreeing with Rinkēvičs that crossing Polish airspace more than 19 times can hardly be seen as an error or coincidence.
He pointed out that NATO immediately triggered Article 4 consultations, noting that this was only the eighth time in the alliance’s history that such consultations were convened.
Stubb underlined that the “Eastern Shield” programme will be gradually expanded to include Scandinavia and Northern Europe so that the alliance is ready to face possible threats.
On Zapad, Stubb said nothing out of the ordinary has been observed so far, but stressed that in such unpredictable circumstances, the line between peace and war has blurred — and NATO must be able to respond to new challenges.
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