Pilots
of
the
“Sharp
Kartuza”
division
of
FPV
kamikaze
drones
prepare
drones
for
a
combat
flight
on
May
16,
2024
in
the
Kharkiv
region,
8
km
from
the
border
with
Russia.
Libkos
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Six
NATO
countries
neighboring
Russia
are
joining
forces
to
build
a
“drone
wall”
to
protect
their
borders,
Lithuania’s
interior
minister
announced
on
Friday.
“This
is
a
completely
new
thing,
a
drone
wall
stretching
from Norway to Poland,
and
the
goal
is
to
use
drones
and
other
technologies
to
protect
our
borders,”
Lithuanian
Interior
Minister Agne
Bilotaite
said
in
an
interview
with
local
news
agency
BNS.
“Not
only
with
physical
infrastructure,
surveillance
systems,
but
also
with
drones
and
other
technologies,
which
would
allow
us
to
protect
against
provocations
from
unfriendly
countries
and
to
prevent
smuggling,”
she
said.
The
other
states
taking
part
are
Lithuania’s
Baltic
neighbors
Latvia
and
Estonia,
as
well
as
Poland,
Finland,
and
Norway.
Details
such
as
funding,
timeline
and
technical
aspects
of
the
project
were
not
provided,
but
Bilotaite
said
EU
funds
could
play
a
role
and
that
each
country
had
to
do
its
“homework.”
In
an
interview
with
Finnish
television
channel
Yle,
cited
by
the
Financial
Times,
Finland’s
Interior
Minister
Mari
Rantanen
said
that
the
drone
wall
plan
would
“improve
in
time.”
Finland,
which
joined
NATO
in
2023,
shares
an
832-mile
border
with
Russia.
The
interior
ministers
of
the
six
countries
taking
part
in
the
drone
wall
project
met
in
the
Latvian
capital
of
Riga
on
May
23
and
24.
They
discussed
security
threats
as
well
as
the
issue
of
non-military
tactics
such
as
“instrumentalized
migration”,
citing
past
instances
where
Russia
or
Belarus
sent
masses
of
undocumented
asylum
seekers
from
Africa
and
the
Middle
East
over
their
borders.
“Our
goal
is
to
ensure
that
Finland
has
effective
means
to
tackle
situations
where
instrumentalized
migration
is
used
to
put
pressure
on
Finland,”
Rantanen
said
in
a
statement
during
the
event.
“The
phenomenon
of
instrumentalized
migration
on
the
EU’s
external
borders
is
a
common
challenge
for
our
countries.
Finland
also
aims
to
find
EU-level
solutions
to
combat
this
phenomenon.”
