Russia is exploiting stray drone incidents near the Baltic states to create pressure on NATO’s eastern flank, according to Lithuanian defense expert Col. Vaidotas Malinionis, founder of the National Defense Foundation, who spoke to TVP World. Malinionis made the remarks on TVP World’s Eastern Express program after Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds resigned following drone incursions that damaged oil storage facilities in eastern Latvia. A new kind of spillover He said the resignation was difficult to assess from the outside, but added that the wider challenge was clear: Baltic states, Poland and Finland must adapt to a “new hybrid” environment in which drones may cross borders unpredictably. “We will live in those conditions and we will have to learn how to cope with that,” he said. The incident has revived questions over whether NATO states should automatically shoot down drones entering their airspace. Malinionis argued that the answer is not always straightforward. In peacetime, he said, armed forces may not be deployed in full wartime mode along every vulnerable border section. Instead, he called for better detection, clearer procedures and closer support for border police, including with technologies already used by armed forces. He also said Ukraine could help Baltic states improve their anti‑drone defenses, an idea Kyiv has also said it is considering. Russian pressure tactic Malinionis said Russia had already falsely accused Latvia and Estonia of allowing their airspace to be used by Ukrainian drones. A European Digital Media Observatory analysis has also described Russian claims about Baltic states “opening the skies” to Ukrainian drones as a propaganda narrative. He said Moscow may not need to take control of Ukrainian drones directly to cause disruption. Jamming them and forcing them off course may be enough. “The easiest way, of course, is to disrupt drones’ direction,” he said, adding that Russia was using the incidents “to create some kind of pressure on us and to make us feel uneasy.”
