Russia’s military is preparing an “appropriate” response to Ukraine’s alleged use of Baltic territory to launch drone attacks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
“This problem exists, and our relevant services, primarily the military in this case, are closely monitoring the situation and formulating our country’s necessary response,” Peskov told the pro-Kremlin tabloid Izvestia, though he did not specify the scope of the measures.
The warning comes a day after Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on Tuesday threatened Latvia, stating its NATO membership would not “protect” it from Moscow’s retaliation for Riga allegedly allowing Ukraine to fire drones from inside its borders.
Latvia’s foreign minister accused the SVR of running a disinformation campaign amid an internal political crisis triggered by Ukrainian drones straying into Latvian airspace and crashing.
U.S. Deputy Representative to the UN Tammy Bruce said that “there is no place for threats” against Latvia, assuring member states that Washington “keeps all of its NATO commitments.”
Also on Tuesday, Estonia’s defense ministry said a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone after it entered Estonian airspace, marking the first such interception in the Baltics since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, American General Alexus Grynkewich, said that the downing disproved Russia’s claim that Ukraine was launching drones from within the borders of the military alliance.
“If we were allowing drones to go through Baltic airspace in order to get to Russia, we wouldn’t be shooting them down,” Grynkewich said.
Meanwhile, a drone alert issued by Lithuania’s defense ministry on Wednesday brought transportation in parts of the country to a standstill and forced residents of the capital, Vilnius, into underground shelters.
The alert, which was later lifted, marked the first time since the 2022 invasion that such a warning applied to both Lithuanian political leaders and the general public.
Air alerts have become increasingly common in the Baltic states due to intensified Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian sites in the nearby Leningrad region and St. Petersburg. Several Ukrainian drones have crashed in the three Baltic states in recent months.
Tensions have been further aggravated after Lithuania’s foreign minister said this week that NATO has the means to “level” Russian air defense and missile bases in the western exclave of Kaliningrad in the event of an open conflict.
