Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said that the planes of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO), stationed in the Baltic states, should shoot down Russian drones in the airspace of his country and its neighbors, after a Russian drone fell in Latvia last week.
Since the entry of the three Baltic states into NATO in 2004, their skies have been patrolled by NATO planes because they do not have fighter planes.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on Tuesday that his country is discussing the issue with its allies, RSE reports.
“We raise the issue of the protocol for intercepting drones with our partners in NATO and request that allied fighter planes be used as soon as a drone approaches our borders,” he said, assessing that the problem arises, among other things, because the planes receive commands from NATO , and not from the local level, which slows down the procedure.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said earlier this month that Warsaw should have the right to shoot down Russian missiles that threaten its territory while they are still over Ukraine. Ukraine also asked neighboring NATO member states on Wednesday to shoot down Russian missiles and drones targeting its western regions.
