Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu issued a warning on April 16 to NATO member nations Finland and the three Baltic states, that Russia has the right to retaliate if these nations continue to allow their airspace to be used for Ukrainian drone attacks upon Russia.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists, as RT reports on April 16. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Shoigu stated that either Western air defenses are proving ineffective in stopping these drones, or that these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia.” In the latter case, he stated, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
In late March, Kiev attacked Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk with swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The leading focus of Ukraine’s attacks were on the oil export facilities in these ports— approximately 40% of Russia’s oil exports leave through these two ports—plus refineries in southern Russia in the Novorossiysk and Krasnodar area. A second focus of the drones has been to attempt to destroy Russia’s air defense systems in Crimea, the new Russian territories in Novorossiya, and Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
