Vilnius:

Lithuania said Friday that the Baltic state and five other NATO members neighbouring Russia had agreed to build a “drone wall” to defend their borders from “provocations”.

The plan to use unmanned aerial vehicles for protection was agreed because of security concerns in the region amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite announced the plan after talks with her counterparts from fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia, as well as Finland, Norway and Poland.

“This is a completely new thing, a drone wall stretching from Norway to Poland, and the goal is to use drones and other technologies to protect our borders,” she told the BNS news agency.

“Not only with physical infrastructure, surveillance systems, but also with drones and other technologies, which would allow us to protect against provocations from unfriendly countries and to prevent smuggling,” she said.

In addition to deploying drones to monitor the border, the countries would also use anti-drone systems to stop enemy UAVs.

Bilotaite did not give a time frame for the plan.

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