The European Union plans to help turn a port in Lithuania into a strategic NATO hub as part of a project worth more than €200 million aimed at developing defense and energy infrastructure in the Baltic region.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted over the Baltic Sea on Monday.
On June 13, units of the Swedish Armed Forces’ rapid response force intercepted Russian combat aircraft twice over the Baltic Sea near Swedish airspace.
Any rhetoric from the Kremlin suggesting that Lithuania or another Baltic country might have granted Ukraine permission to use its airspace for drone strikes is propaganda.
Ukraine possesses intelligence indicating that Russia is deliberately diverting drones toward the Baltic states and Finland in order to use such incidents for information operations.
Northern European and Baltic countries will provide EUR 12.5 billion in defense support to Ukraine and EUR 918 million to strengthen the country's energy resilience this year.
The Swedish Navy encounters Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea "almost weekly" and is preparing for a further increase in their numbers in the event of a ceasefire or truce in the war in Ukraine.
Belarus has intensified its attempts to destabilize the situation in the Baltic states. In particular, Lithuania has recorded the highest number of illegal border crossings from Belarusian territory in the past six months.
The North Atlantic Alliance has announced it is strengthening its mission in the Baltic Sea by sending an air-defense frigate and other assets in response to drone incursions in Denmark.
The Polish Border Guard reported that two Russian fighter jets violated the safety zone of the Petrobaltic drilling platform in the Baltic Sea on Friday, September 19, flying directly over it.
On the night of September 12, Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) drones struck Russia's largest oil port, Prymorsk, on the Baltic Sea, which is the terminus of the Baltic pipeline system.