Russian drone incidents in Baltics could happen again, we need to be prepared - Nauseda

VILNIUS - Incidents involving Russian drones violating Baltic airspace could happened again, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says as he urged NATO to be ready to create realistic opportunities to shoot them down in the future.

He made the remarks after an incident over the weekend when a Russian Shahed drone carrying explosives fell in Latvia.

"This kind of incidents may repeat in the future and we have to be ready," Nauseda said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.

"Right now we are not only talking about the detection of possible drones or other objects flying over the territory of Lithuania, but we are also talking about the procedures and possible shooting of those objects down," he said.

The Lithuanian leader argued that the incident in Latvia demonstrated once again the need to transform the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission into an air defense mission and to accelerate the implementation of the Alliance's rotational air defense model.

NATO fighter jets stationed in the Baltic states are mainly deployed to identify and escort Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea in violation of international flight rules.

Meanwhile, NATO's rotational air defense model in the Baltic Sea region was agreed last year and its aim is to rotate allied air defense systems in the Baltic states on a virtually permanent basis, but so far only the Netherlands has brought Patriot long-range systems to Lithuania for a few weeks.

On Wednesday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas also said that he would consult with allies on whether NATO fighter jets performing the Baltic Air Policing mission could shoot down Russian drones if they violate Lithuanian airspace.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics also spoke about a similar possibility earlier this week.