ARCHIVE – The flags of Ukraine (l-r), Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Photo: –/https:
Keystone
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have strongly refuted claims from Moscow that they have made their territory and airspace available for Ukrainian attacks against Russia.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three Baltic EU and NATO states rejected the “ongoing Russian disinformation campaign against our countries” as “completely unfounded”.
The accusations had already been unequivocally refuted at the end of March to the chargés d’affaires of the Russian representations in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Nevertheless, Russia is continuing its lies despite this reaction, according to the statement from the three countries. It also emphasized that Ukraine has the right to defend itself against the Russian war of aggression.
Russia has been waging a devastating war against neighboring Ukraine for more than four years. Part of Ukraine’s defense is air strikes on industrial and military facilities in the Russian hinterland. Most recently, Ukraine repeatedly attacked targets in the north-west of Russia near the border with Estonia. During the attacks, several misguided Ukrainian drones entered the airspace of the Baltic states and crashed in some cases. There were no casualties or major damage. Russia then raised its unsubstantiated claims. “Instead of continuing its malicious disinformation campaign, Russia must end its war of aggression against Ukraine,” the Baltic foreign ministers wrote.