“There is always the possibility that a drone will not crash in a field or forest but, God forbid, hit a house. If they are flying, that possibility unquestionably exists,” former commander of the Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS) and Air Force Juris Maklakovs told BNN when asked about the recent incidents in which military drones armed with explosives regularly approached or violated Latvian airspace.
“I don’t think people should be overly worried about it, but there definitely needs to be greater necessity and activity from the armed forces, border guard, and police,” the former NBS commander said.
According to him, much faster and more active action is specifically needed from the armed forces in order to intercept and shoot down these drones and prevent them from harming civilian objects, people, buildings, or infrastructure.
“Drones are quite difficult to detect, which is why we need to think about various types of sensors, which certainly do exist. Another important point is that we have a sufficient number of National Guard units, including in the Latgale region, that would be capable of forming mobile brigades and doing something to neutralize these drones.”
Maklakovs also told BNN that drones entering Latvian airspace will undoubtedly continue in the future.
The former NBS commander also stated that the acquisition and development of an air defense system should be carried out jointly by the three Baltic states.
“Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are very small countries, and we understand how important cooperation is. Given the economic situation, it is extremely expensive for each country to do this individually. There is a real need to evaluate cooperation among the three Baltic states,” he said.
“As we saw from the recent events, Estonia was informed that a drone was flying, and that helped them shoot it down. The need to create such an air defense system within the framework of Baltic cooperation is very important, as are the relevant decisions made at the political level.”
Asked to comment on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s statement that Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones toward Latvian territory using electronic warfare systems,
Maklakovs explained that drones rely on global navigation systems and can be deceived.
“There is what is known as spoofing — falsifying identity signals — drone deception, or electronic countermeasures. In this case, either it was spoofing, where [the drones] were misled and shown incorrect coordinates, causing them to divert toward the Latvian region, or they were attempting to bypass an electronic warfare zone by searching for its weakest point in order to reach their original target. Both of these scenarios are entirely possible.”
Another important issue, he added, is Russia’s latest disinformation campaign and claims that Ukraine is preparing attacks against Russia from Latvian territory.
Maklakovs pointed out that similar rhetoric from Russia has already been heard for quite some time.
“If I’m not mistaken, yesterday (the 19th of May) this issue was publicly raised for the first time at the United Nations Security Council by Russia.
Latvia responded accordingly and submitted a diplomatic note.
First of all, those drones deviated from Russia, and I believe this can be proven because there is electronic information from radars as well as data from sensors. It is perfectly clear that they enter Baltic airspace from Russia or Belarus and then fly back again while bypassing electronic countermeasures.”
“Secondly, of course we cooperate with Ukraine, and it is completely clear that Ukrainian soldiers appear here. If Russia interprets this as a signal that drones will be launched from here, I do not consider that a credible version with any real basis.”
“We have Americans here, Canadians, and representatives from 12 or 13 other countries. That does not mean Ukrainians cannot also be here. Russia is simply presenting its own narrative that it supposedly has intelligence about Ukrainian soldiers visiting Ādaži, Lielvārde, or somewhere else, as they claimed.”
“As we know, cooperation on countering drones was proposed both during presidential meetings and to Defense Minister Andris Sprūds. But none of this can be considered a valid basis for claiming that drones would be launched from here.”
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