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The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued an official statement this Tuesday in which it directly threatened Latvia and other NATO member countries with reprisals, claiming that Ukraine intends to launch drones against Russian territory from Latvian military bases, which Moscow described as "terrorist attacks."
The statement, through its Facebook page, claims that Ukrainian personnel from the Unmanned Systems Force have already been deployed to five Latvian military bases: Adazi, Selija, Lielvarde, Daugavpils, and Jekabpils.
The central threat of the statement is explicit: "Membership in NATO does not exempt terrorist accomplices from deserved retribution."
The SVR also warned that "the coordinates of decision-making centers in Latvian territory are well known," in a reference that directly points to government and military installations in the Baltic country.
The response from Riga was immediate and categorical. The Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, rejected the accusations on the social media platform X with two straightforward statements: “Latvia does NOT concede its airspace for attacks against Russia” and “Russia is lying once again.”
Ukraine also denied the accusations, stating that its forces do not operate from Latvian territory or airspace.
On the same day, the Russian ambassador to the UN reiterated these accusations before the Security Council, elevating the episode to the multilateral level and broadening its propagandistic reach.
The SVR's statement comes amid an ongoing escalation in the Baltic region. On the same Tuesday, a NATO fighter jet shot down a drone—allegedly Ukrainian—over Estonian airspace, between the towns of Võrtsjärv and Põltsamaa, in an incident that Moscow immediately used to strengthen its narrative.
The background is extensive. On March 25, 2026, two Ukrainian drones accidentally entered the airspace of Latvia and Estonia during a massive attack against Russia. In April, Russia published a list of 21 European companies manufacturing drones for Ukraine, including facilities in Latvia, which Dmitri Medvedev described as a "list of potential targets" with the threat: "Sleep well, European partners."
On March 18, Russia violated Estonia's airspace with a Su-30SM fighter jet. On April 7, NATO Portuguese fighter jets intercepted a Russian military aircraft Il-76 over the Baltic Sea, marking the first operation of its kind by the Portuguese detachment in Estonia.
The dissemination of the SVR statement in Spanish through the Russian Embassy in Cuba indicates a deliberate strategy of amplification in Latin America, using diplomatic channels as a platform for informational warfare.
Latvia has been a member of NATO since March 29, 2004, which means that any attack against its territory could trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, stating that an aggression against one ally is an aggression against all. The Russian threat openly challenges this principle of collective defense.
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