Baltics, Poland, Finland, Norway to set up drone walls with Russia

On Friday, the interior ministers of the three Baltic states, as well as Poland, Finland, and Norway, discussed the creation of a so-called drone wall on their borders with Russia. Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets (SDE) said Estonia would like to cover its entire eastern border with technology capable of detecting and repelling drones. Major cities would also need to install this capability.
Läänemets said that, unfortunately, in the near future we must be prepared for more and more situations in which Russia tries to disrupt our lives with the help of drones, as it is becoming increasingly difficult to physically enter Estonian territory.
"As we can see on the Ukrainian front, there is a constant technological race between adversaries and new ways to use drones in warfare. The same is true for the various drones that people have access to. Being even a small step ahead of the opponent leads to greater success, but this success can be measured in days, as countermeasures are discovered with alarming speed for each measure, and the cycle continues. There is no question whether this is necessary, as even the smallest drones have already proven their worth as reconnaissance and offensive weapons," Läänemets said.
Veiko Kommusaar, deputy director general for border management at the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), said that the agency together with its partner organizations, has developed a plan to equip the eastern border and major cities with drone detection and control.
"The various PPA units would continue to use mobile drone surveillance and countermeasure technologies in addition to their stationary capabilities," he said.
"In order to ensure the safety of our people, we need the Estonian state to be able to detect drones flying over us at any time and bring them down if necessary," he added.
Finland's interior minister says the case of the Narva River buoys serious
Finland's Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told Finnish broadcaster Yle that the drone wall is unlikely to become a reality in the near future, but she said the Ukrainian experience shows that new technology should be used in the most effective way and that it makes sense for countries to work together.
"After all, the drone is a very good surveillance tool, especially for long borders where there are many areas where it is neither practical nor possible to build a border fence. In this sense, it is worth taking full advantage of the new technology," Finland's minister of the interior said.
Russia said this week that it will unilaterally change its maritime borders with Finland and Lithuania. On Thursday night, Russian border guards removed buoys placed on the Narva River to facilitate water traffic on the Estonian-Russian border.
According to the Finnish interior minister, the Estonian incident was more serious, balanced way.
"These incidents were very close in time, it is difficult to say whether they were linked. But it's good that Estonia brought this case to the attention of the public and reacted quickly so that everyone knew about it," Rantanen said.
She added that all countries bordering Russia need to be vigilant now.
The ministers also agreed at the meeting to assist each other swiftly in the event of a cross-border or other hybrid attack.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Kai Vare, Kristina Kersa