PANEVEZYS, Lithuania \u2014 Defense ministers for the three Baltic states said Thursday they are mulling a joint air defense system in response to security concerns over Russia’s activity in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministers of NATO-members Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania met in the northern Lithuanian city of Panevezys along with their Ukrainian counterpart at a time when their relations with Russia are at a post-Soviet low over the Ukraine crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We plan to analyze the possibility of developing a medium-range air defense system to strengthen our defense capabilities,” Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“External threats lead us to cooperate more,” he said, referring to neighbor and Soviet-era master Russia, which has spooked the region with its intervention in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO has been guarding the skies over the three small Baltic states since 2004, when they joined the defense alliance but lacked the air power to monitor their own airspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Moscow’s thumb until 1991, the Baltic trio has been on high alert since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pro-Russian separatists have since been battling Ukrainian government forces for over a year in a conflict that has claimed nearly 6,300 lives and left well over a million people homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The situation remains complicated and absolutely unpredictable,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that since the inking of a fragile February ceasefire agreement 100 of their soldiers have died and 500 have been wounded. “We consider there is a high risk of further escalation of the situation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Baltics said earlier this month that they will formally ask the NATO defense alliance to deploy several thousand permanent troops in their region as a deterrent to Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defence ministers for the three Baltic states said Thursday they are mulling a joint air defense system in response to security concerns over Russia’s activity in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-27095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EZVE747U75HY7BWU4CYUCCLW6E","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2015\/05\/28\/baltics-mull-joint-air-defense-against-russia\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n