Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Wednesday that recent incidents involving Ukrainian drones entering Baltic and Finnish airspace highlight the need to strengthen air defences.
“We must, and we must do it very quickly – strengthen both our detection capabilities and our ability to shoot down, so that such incidents are immediately prevented, and our people are not put at risk,” Nausėda told reporters on Thursday.
Stubb stressed the importance of drawing on Kyiv’s experience when modernising air defence systems.
“In war there is often collateral damage and the collateral damage that we have seen in forms of drones gone astray both here in Lithuania or in Finland are obviously serious and it also shows that we need to become more vigilant and modernise our air defenses and the best way to do that is to plug into the experience of Ukraine,” said the Finnish leader, who is on a state visit to Lithuania.
“We especially need more drone cooperation with Ukraine. And that is something that all of us allies, especially on the eastern and northeastern flank, are working on,” he added.
Nausėda also reiterated that Lithuanian territory cannot be used for drone strikes, stressing that any drone entering Lithuanian airspace is considered a threat.
“We cannot have swarms of drones flying back and forth while we pretend nothing is happening. Any drone entering the territory of Lithuania is a threat. Initially, we do not even know where it was sent from, where it is intended to fly, or what its intentions are,” he said.
According to the president, the Lithuanian military must be prepared to react immediately and neutralise the threat in such cases.
Russia has recently accused the Baltic states of allowing their airspace to be used by Ukrainian drones. However, NATO officials say some drones entered the region after Russia diverted them off course using electronic warfare measures.
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