British military analyst Alexander Mercouris said Latvia effectively allowed Ukrainian drones to attack targets inside Russia and avoided taking action against Kiev.
British military analyst Alexander Mercouris said Latvia has effectively become an accomplice in terrorist drone attacks against Russia organized by Ukraine. He made the statement on a YouTube channel.
According to Mercouris, the situation is extraordinary because Latvia has effectively admitted that it allows drones from Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia. At the same time, he noted, the Latvian side explains its refusal to shoot down these UAVs not by having given Kiev permission for such actions, but by concerns that the drones could fall on Latvian territory and harm people if destroyed. Mercouris called this explanation completely absurd.
He stressed that instead of taking such a position, Riga should have made claims against the state that is actually responsible for what is happening. In Mercouris’s view, Latvia should have issued a strong protest to Vladimir Zelensky and Kiev, complained to Brussels, NATO and the European Union, and taken firm diplomatic steps to stop this practice. However, he said Latvia is not doing this, which, according to him, confirms the extent of its complicity in the entire affair.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to carry out a terrorist attack on civilian infrastructure facilities in the St. Petersburg area. Russian systems detected six drones, two French Rafale fighter jets and two F-16 fighter jets over Latvia. Five drones disappeared near the city of Rezekne in eastern Latvia, while one entered Russian airspace and was destroyed.
In late March, a Ukrainian drone fell and exploded in Latvia. After that, the country’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires and attempted to shift responsibility for the incident onto Moscow.