Lithuania calls on NATO to shoot down Russian drones in Baltic States
Photo: Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas (flickr.com)
Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas has called for a change in the algorithm of NATO's air policing mission in the Baltic States. This statement was made after a Russian drone crashed in Latvia, according to LRT.
“The air policing must not only patrol but also, if necessary, if possible, if time permits, shorten the decision-making chain at the NATO level so that they can take off immediately and destroy the drones,” Kasčiūnas said.
He believes that if a threat of a drone violating NATO airspace is detected, information about it should be quickly transmitted to the Alliance's headquarters.
“The NATO HQ assesses the situation to see if there is sufficient evidence that it is a hostile drone and not some other lost aircraft, and then a swift decision is made to deploy air police jets. This is a certain algorithm, and it needs to be accelerated,” the Defense Minister noted.
He said that Vilnius's reaction in the event of a violation of the country's airspace by a Russian drone should be a collective decision by NATO.
What happened before
On September 8, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said that a Russian military drone had crashed in the eastern part of his country. An investigation was launched in Latvia.
It was later revealed that the drone that crashed in Latvia was most likely a Shahed, which was packed with explosives.
After this incident, the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Charge d'Affaires of Russia. He was given a strong protest over the Russian drone that was spotted in the east of the country.
