As reported, a Russian attack drone “Shahed” equipped with explosives fell in Gaigalava parish of Rēzekne region on Saturday.
Podoliak pointed out that during the Russian air raids on Ukraine over the weekend, Russian drones crossed the borders of NATO member states twice – one of them, flying over Belarus, fell on the territory of Latvia, and the other flew into Romanian airspace and crossed it, accompanied by Romanian fighter jets, until returning to Ukraine.
“The attempt was made, the exact answer was obtained,” writes the adviser to the President of Ukraine. “Now the adversary knows – NATO will not respond to the violation of the airspace by drones and to the attack on its territory that did not claim victims. What will happen next is easy to predict. Crossing the border with planes and “random attacks” with few victims.”
Podoliak believes that Russia uses “salami tactics” and discredits NATO with such apparently insignificant incidents.
“They will slowly escalate the conflict, trying to avoid [Ziemeļatlantijas līguma] the triggering of Article 5 on mutual assistance,” emphasizes the Ukrainian official, adding that the Russians’ aim is to undermine the trust of certain alliance members in their allies, in order to encourage them to consider a separate agreement with Moscow.
2024-09-10 10:00:30