White House reacts to Russian drones downing in Romania and Latvia
Photo: US flag (Getty Images)
The White House has responded to the situation with Russian drones that violated the airspace of Romania and Latvia last weekend. John Kirby, Strategic Communications Coordinator for the US National Security Council, stresses that this demonstrates the danger from Russia.
Kirby says that such incidents with Russian drones underscore the danger that Russia's war against Ukraine has caused for the entire European continent.
Russian UAVs have not only crossed the borders of NATO member states but have also crashed on their territories.
"This is, unfortunately, not a new development, as it happened over the course of the war in Ukraine where missile fragments or drone fragments sometimes get caught up in the combat and the air combat and land in a neighboring nation," Kirby says.
He adds that the US closely monitors such cases. The US government is in close contact with allies and partners on this issue.
"But — but it’s just — it just underscores the — the danger that Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine has now caused to the whole European continent and the fact that the security landscape has changed — not is changing, not will change, but actually has changed — which is why we’re doing everything we can to make sure Ukraine can defend itself," he stresses.
Russian drones in Romania and Latvia
During Russia's attack on Ukraine, on the night of September 7-8, Russian attack drones violated Romanian airspace. Later, it became known that Russian drones crossed into Latvian airspace. President Edgars Rinkēvičs said that one Russian drone had crashed in Latvia. It is known that it first flew into the territory of Belarus, where it then changed course to Latvia.
The opposition in Romania criticized the government for its inaction, explaining that the parliament has not yet passed a law that would allow shooting down Russian drones.
The authorities of Belarus tried to ignore the fact that the Russian drone landed on its territory.
