Lithuanian president: drone incident in Latvia shows need to beef up Baltic air defense

KAUNAS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda condemned violations of NATO airspace by the aggressor and called for strengthening air defense in the Baltic countries following the crash of a Russian military drone in Latvia on Saturday.

“Lithuania condemns Russia's violations of NATO airspace and supports the allies affected,” Nauseda posted on X on Sunday.

“The new incident in Latvia shows that we need to strengthen the air defense of the Baltic States. The rotational model of air defense must be adapted as agreed at the [NATO] summit in Vilnius,” the Lithuanian leader stressed.

An unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in the Rezekne region on Saturday, the Latvian Defense Ministry reported.

The ministry pointed out that according to the initial data, this was a Russian drone of military significance and, according to the information available to the National Armed Forces (NBS), it flew into Latvian airspace from Belarus.

According to the ministry, the State Police and the National Armed Forces continue to investigate the circumstances of the incident, which was reported to NATO allies and respective EU authorities.

Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said that a representative of the Russian Embassy had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday.

"Russia's war in Ukraine requires us not to lose vigilance. Today, a similar incident happened in Romania. We are vigilant, decisive, cool-minded, weighing our next steps, involving allies," she said in a press release.

Fellow NATO member Romania said on Sunday that a Russian attack drone targeting civilian infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine overnight had entered its airspace.

Bucharest strongly condemned the "renewed violation" brought on by Moscow's "illegal attacks" while its foreign ministry said it had informed its NATO allies about the airspace breach.