Russia Considering Strikes in Baltic Region Using Ukrainian Drones, Lithuania Says

Russia is considering using captured Ukrainian drones to stage false flag attacks against countries in the Baltic region, according to Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas.“We have information that Russia is considering carrying out unconventional kinetic attacks against critical infrastructure in the Baltic region,” Kaunas told Lithuanian outlet 15min on Aug. 6, citing the nation’s military intelligence service. “It is likely that Russia could use Ukrainian-made drones for this.”“Since Ukraine successfully attacks Russia, some of the Ukrainian drones are intercepted by Russia while defending themselves, and some of the drones crash,” he elaborated.“Russia has these drone parts or fragments, and it is capable of constructing them, molding them into a working device, and the theoretical possibility that such drones could be used for a false flag operation exists,” the minister said, according to Lithuanian state outlet LRT.He added that such a false flag operation with a Ukrainian drone had been assessed as the “most realistic scenario.”“We are talking about a false ⁠flag operation, using a false Ukrainian drone. … One of the ​goals is for NATO to waver and decrease support to Ukraine,” Kaunas said. “​I can assure this will not happen.”The Epoch Times has contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.Kaunas’s comments come at a time of heightened tensions in the Baltic region, with Poland and Latvia also recently warning that Moscow could be considering ways to try and dampen support for Kyiv in the region.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on July 25, that, “without exception,” the nations “share the view that the situation is highly unstable.”“Various kinds of escalation can be expected in the coming weeks and months,” he added at a summit of NATO’s Eastern Flank nations in Gdansk, Poland. “As a group of countries directly exposed to this risk, because we border Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, we will want to prepare ourselves.”Latvia increased its security at critical infrastructure sites after also receiving intelligence that Russia may be planning an attack in the Baltic region, the country’s prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, said on July 16.Kulbergs told Reuters that security had been increased at Incukalns, a large underground gas storage facility, and around a hydroelectric dam upstream from the Latvian capital, Riga.The prime minister said that as Russia is facing setbacks on the battlefield in its war with Ukraine, Moscow wants “a potential quick win, so the potential hybrid threat is larger than before.”“Anything is possible,” he said.This followed similar action by Lithuania, which stated earlier the same week that it was boosting security around transport and energy sites as a precaution after receiving intelligence that Russia was planning attacks on critical infrastructure.“I cannot deny that we have such information and that we are talking about kinetic operations,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told the BNS news agency on July 15.“Not large-scale, but … targeted kinetic operations, which, very likely, could be directed at critical infrastructure facilities.”Estonia, however, has been more moderate in its tone regarding the situation.Col. Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defense Intelligence Center, said on July 10 that though there had been “recent public discussions about possible Russian provocations or even military preparations toward the Baltic states,” this should be “seen as part of Russia’s information warfare aimed at influencing Western societies,” rather than active steps for a kinetic attack.“We still see no military preparations from Russia to carry out an operation in the Baltics or this region in the near future,” Kiviselg told Estonian public broadcaster ERR.Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian targets with long-range drones, with more than 400 unleashed in a single attack on the Moscow region last month, according to Russian officials.Kyiv and NATO countries have blamed signal jamming by Russia for diverting some Ukrainian drones into NATO airspace, while Moscow accuses Ukraine of intentionally steering drones across the border.Moscow has consistently denied allegations it’s trying to intimidate NATO countries on its periphery, calling them “fearmongering.”