“Such incidents can happen again in the future, and we must be prepared,” Nauseda said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.
“Currently, it is not only about the detection of drones or other objects flying over the territory of Lithuania, but also about the procedures and possibilities to shoot down such objects,” he said.
The President of Lithuania said that the incident in Latvia once again proves the need to transform NATO’s airspace patrol functions in the Baltic states into air defense and to speed up the implementation of the alliance’s rotational air defense model.
Currently, in the airspace patrol mission of the Baltic States, allied fighters mainly perform patrol functions and escort Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea in violation of international flight rules.
Last year, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, an agreement was reached on the air defense rotation model of the Baltic states.
As reported, on September 7, a Russian “Shahed” type drone fell in Gaigalava parish of Rēzekne region. The Latvian National Armed Forces monitored the situation, but no decision was made either to shoot down this drone or to take the NATO fighter jets on duty in Latvia into the air, which earned criticism from some of the public. When the drone fell, the warhead that had not exploded initially was deactivated.
Following the incident, the Ministry of Defense has started consultations with allies who have recently faced similar incidents. Wider consultations are also being initiated to seek collective solutions together with NATO allies. The Ministry of Defense has also started an evaluation of the actions of the responsible persons during the incident.
2024-09-13 01:41:36