AL Jazeera:
Russia appears to have escalated its shadow war in Europe this year.
European officials have alleged that Russian fighter planes have veered inside Polish, Lithuanian and Estonian airspace, testing reaction times. Suspected Russian drones have been downed over Poland, Finland and the Baltic states.
And Moscow has been accused of bringing trouble to the Black Sea.
In two separate operations in October, Ukraine accused Russia of using aerial and surface drones to sink four cargo ships just outside the territorial waters of Bulgaria, a European Union and NATO member, in an apparent warning that Ukraine’s grain exports through NATO territorial waters may not be safe for long.
Russia and Belarus have also been accused of trying to destabilise the Baltic states by making their borders appear fluid.
“Masked and most likely armed individuals on the Belarus side of the border escorted and attempted to push groups of illegal migrants into Latvia,” Ieva Cesniece, Latvia’s ambassador to Greece, told Al Jazeera. “Those individuals expressed threats to Latvian soldiers and border guards. On the same day in a separate incident, masked individuals crossed into Latvian territory and carried out deliberate sabotage. Bborder infrastructure was damaged, and surveillance equipment was removed.”
Latvian media have reported that asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who tried to run back from the Latvian border were rounded up by Belarusian authorities and pushed towards Latvia again.
Cesniece drew a direct link between the Russian war in Ukraine and its shadow war in Europe.
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