Baltic states reject Russia's accusations of allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for drone strikes

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have issued a joint statement on behalf of their foreign ministers, rejecting Moscow's accusations that they allowed their airspace to be used for Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory.

In the statement of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, the Baltic states' top diplomats dismissed the Russian disinformation campaign as "completely baseless".

"The Baltic states have never allowed their territories and airspace to be used for drone attacks against targets in Russia," the statement reads.

The ministers recalled that the Baltic countries had previously officially denied these accusations, clearly conveying this to the chargé d'affaires of Russian diplomatic missions in Tallinn (27 March), Riga (31 March) and Vilnius (27 March), respectively.

"Notwithstanding the official reaction, Russia has continued lying," the statement adds.

The Baltic foreign ministers stressed that Ukraine continues to defend itself against Russia's full-scale war of aggression in full compliance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.

"Instead of continuing its malign information operation, Russia must end its war of aggression against Ukraine and fully withdraw its armed forces from all internationally recognised territory of Ukraine. Baltic States remain in full solidarity with Ukraine," the statement concludes.

During a series of Ukrainian strikes on Russian ports around Saint Petersburg in late March, several drones entered the airspace of the Baltic states and Finland.

In Estonia, a crashed Ukrainian drone was again found on 31 March, with around a dozen UAVs believed to have violated the country's airspace in total.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry apologised to the Baltic states and Finland for these incidents, noting that they were most likely the result of interference from Russian electronic warfare systems.