Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said on Tuesday that Moscow has information that Ukraine plans to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states. He warned that NATO membership will not protect these countries from retaliatory measures, reports TASR according to Reuters.
Nebenzia spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council on security in Ukraine. He claimed that Kiev had already sent Ukrainian drone forces to Latvia, but Russian intelligence services were able to detect the locations of the drone launches.
Russian warnings to NATO
“Russia’s foreign intelligence service said that the coordinates of the decision centers in Latvia are well known and NATO membership will not protect you from retaliation, even if you are a NATO member,” Nebenzia said through an interpreter.
The Latvian ambassador to the UN, Sanita Pavlutová-Deslandesová, immediately rejected his statement as “pure fiction”.
Deputy US Ambassador Tammy Bruce warned that the UN “is not the place for threats against a member of the council” and that the United States will meet all of its NATO commitments. She did not provide further details. However, NATO membership is based on collective defense and Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that an armed attack on one member of the Alliance will be considered an attack on all members.
Ukraine’s reaction to the accusations
The ambassador of Ukraine Andriy Meľnyk also rejected Russia’s claims. He called them “fairy tales” and noted that Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians in the first half of May were among the deadliest since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.
On Tuesday, Ukraine accused Russia of redirecting one of its drones into Estonian airspace, where it was shot down by a NATO fighter. It was the latest incident of cross-border drone overflights that have caused a political uproar in the Baltic states.
Drone warnings
On Tuesday, Latvia issued the first aviation hazard warning regarding the possible entry of a drone into its airspace. It urged its residents on the border with Russia not to go outside and called NATO fighter jets to the area. It later announced that no evidence was found of the drone crossing the border.
It subsequently issued a second warning covering two countries bordering Russia, which led to a new deployment of NATO military aircraft.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry apologized to Estonia for the incident and emphasized that Ukraine does not use Latvian or Estonian territory for drone attacks on Russia, which the Baltic countries have confirmed.
