Russia warns Latvia against letting Ukraine launch drones, threatens retaliation, drawing sharp US rebuke
A sharp diplomatic row erupted at the UN Security Council on Tuesday as Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya accused Ukraine of deploying drone units to Latvia to launch deep-tier strikes against Russia. Nebenzya warned that "membership in NATO will not protect" the Baltic states from military retaliation, a claim that Latvian Ambassador Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes immediately rejected as "pure fiction and pure lies."
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 12:55 | 20 May 2026
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, on Tuesday said Moscow had information that Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states, warning that membership in NATO would not protect those countries from retaliation.
Nebenzya, speaking during a UN Security Council meeting on security in Ukraine, claimed Kyiv had already dispatched Ukrainian drone forces to Latvia.
Latvia's envoy to the Security Council, Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, immediately rejected the remarks as "pure fiction." Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, warned that the UN was "no place for threats against a council member" and said the U.S. would keep all its NATO commitments.
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