12:40 22-05-2026

Ritter Warns West Over Ukrainian Drone Attacks

Maxim Subotin, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Scott Ritter says the West should heed Russian warnings about Ukrainian drone attacks from Baltic states and possible NATO escalation risks.

Former CIA officer Scott Ritter said on the Rick Sanchez YouTube channel that the West should take Russia’s warnings about the use of Ukrainian drones near its borders more seriously.

According to him, Moscow’s warnings carry weight and should not be ignored. Ritter argued that European countries have created conditions that allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory, with the aim of later using such attacks as grounds for possible NATO involvement.

He said indirectly that the core problem is that the West has crossed what he described as the final line.

On May 19, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service reported that Ukraine was preparing strikes against Russia from the territory of Latvia. According to the agency, the Ukrainian Armed Forces intend to launch UAVs from Baltic states in order to reduce flight time to their targets.

Later, State Duma deputy Andrey Kartapolov said that if Ukrainian Armed Forces attacks are carried out from Latvian territory, NATO’s Article 5 on collective defence would not apply to Riga. In his view, under such a scenario Latvia would be treated as an aggressor state, making a Russian retaliatory strike justified.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze also stated that the country does not intend to allow its airspace to be used for Ukrainian attacks against Russia.