Following recent drone incidents in Baltic airspace, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have highlighted the need to increase funding for strengthening the external borders of NATO and the European Union, the defence ministers of the three countries said in a joint statement on Friday.
They noted that the recent incidents, driven by Russia’s war against Ukraine, demonstrate the need to continue strengthening multi-layered air defence. This week, several foreign unmanned aerial vehicles crossed NATO airspace in the Baltic states and reached their territories. As the ministers emphasised, no civilians were injured in the incidents, and damage to infrastructure was minimal.
The Baltic defence ministers expressed appreciation for the professionalism of allied forces in NATO’s Baltic air policing mission, while stressing that existing measures are not sufficient. In their view, the Alliance’s efforts to strengthen air defence, including counter-drone capabilities, must be accelerated, and the presence of NATO aircraft and air defence systems in the Baltic states must not only be maintained but also reinforced.
The statement emphasises that allies must urgently strengthen capabilities required for the effective identification and interception of drones in order to prevent all types of aerial threats, including violations involving unmanned aerial vehicles.
At the same time,
the Baltic states underline the need for increased and long-term European Union defence funding,
particularly for strengthening the bloc’s eastern border. The ministers point out that these incidents highlight the importance of Baltic applications for funding under projects of common European interest, including initiatives such as “Eastern Flank Watch” and European drone and counter-drone capability projects.
The ministers also note that the Baltic states are already investing at least five percent of their gross domestic product in defence, prioritising air defence capabilities, drone and counter-drone systems, as well as the development of acoustic sensors.
It has already been reported that this week drones entered and exploded in all three Baltic states. Most likely, while Ukraine was defending itself against Russian aggression, the drones were aimed at targets in Russia but deviated from their course or were diverted by electronic warfare interference methods.
Officials of the Baltic states have emphasised that
these incidents are a consequence of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression and that similar incidents may recur.
Early Monday morning, in Lithuania’s Varėna district near the Belarusian border, a drone crashed onto the frozen Lake Lavysas.
In Latvia, a drone entered the country’s airspace from Russia during the night leading into Wednesday and exploded in the Krāslava municipality approximately one kilometre from the centre of Svariņi parish, while another object briefly entered from Belarusian territory and then returned towards Russia.
Meanwhile, in northeastern Estonia, a drone that entered from Russian airspace crashed into the chimney of the Auvere power plant on Wednesday morning.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė confirmed that
the fallen and exploded aircraft was a Ukrainian drone intended for a target in Russia.
The President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, has also acknowledged that the unmanned aerial vehicle that entered Latvian airspace and detonated was a Ukrainian drone, apparently part of a coordinated Ukrainian operation against targets in Russia.
On the night leading into Wednesday, Ukraine carried out drone strikes on the Russian ports of Ust-Luga and Vyborg in the Leningrad region. Prior to that, Ukrainian drones struck the port of Primorsk in northwestern Russia. These ports are located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.
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