Multiple Ukrainian drones have breached Latvia's airspace this year, likely pushed off course by GPS jamming as Russia tries to protect its oil infrastructure from Kyiv's attacks.

On Monday, a drone was shot down in Latvian airspace by a French jet deployed to Lithuania's Baltic Air Policing mission.

Kyiv has said it will send experts to the region to help combat the problem.

Kulbergs, who took office this week after the last government collapsed partly due to the issue, signed a "drone deal" with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Nordic Baltic prime ministers' summit in Tallinn on Tuesday.

"And next week, the military experts from Ukraine, the ones who fought on the front and have full knowledge, will [come and] assess the Latvian situation," he told ERR News.

"We will know what technical equipment is necessary to protect our skies to the best level."

He told Postimees that anti-drone systems from Ukraine may arrive in Latvia later this year.

The prime minister repeated Zelenskyy's claim that 35,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured in the last month and that "93 percent" were "eliminated" by drones.

Kulbergs said both Latvia and NATO have to move "rapidly" to deal with the problem.

"Our conventional NATO way of fighting things is not efficient and we need to move to someone who knows best in the world how to do that," he said, referring to Ukrainian expertise.

Zelenskyy repeatedly said on Tuesday that Russia was pushing drones into NATO's airspace. When asked by ERR News if Latvia has evidence of this, Kulbergs said: "It's pretty certain."

'Weak economy means weak defense'

Asked if Latvia will take the initiative in Europe to push for any policy developments, such as Estonia's Schengen visa ban for Russian fighters, Kulbergs said his priority is the economy.

He said the economies of countries bordering Russia and Belarus have been "directly" and "tremendously affected" by the war.

"But if we will have weak economy, that means we will have weak defense," the prime minister said, stressing this is not only an issue that affects Latvia or a single country.

"That's an area where we need to push in Brussels," he explained. "That there are measures put in place, not only financial, but maybe there are other possible support measures too."

Shadow fleet 'ticking time bomb'

The prime minister also called for more sanctions on the shadow fleet, referring to the aging sanction-dodging vessels used by Russia in the Baltic Sea to transport oil and fund the war.

He called the fleet an "immediate threat" and a "ticking time bomb" that would be an ecological "catastrophe for the Baltics."

The prime minister said a better joint response to the shadow fleet is needed and that, at the moment, countries are working alone.

"We don't share enough information. We don't have enough sensors in place. So that all has to be put in place as a policy," he told ERR News.

The Latvian leader also said that France's President Macron, who attended the meeting online, will share his "manual" for stopping the vessels.

'Scaling down' Rail Baltica

Latvia's section of the Rail Baltica railway track, which will run from Tallinn to the Polish-Lithuanian border, is the most behind schedule of the three countries. It needs an additional €3.7 billion in its construction budget to complete the project.

Speaking at a press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Krisen Michal on Monday, Kulbergs said "out of the box" ideas are needed.

Asked by ERR News on Tuesday what "out of the box" ideas would look like, he did not specify, but said he is investigating a potential solution and will have an idea of its viability in "two weeks."

"If that is going to be a yes, then that might be a politically possible solution for Latvia and which I will present to Estonia and Lithuanian partners," the prime minister said.

Asked if this means changing the route, he said it means "scaling down" as much as possible.

"Well, we can't afford a Bentley, we need to scale back to an Opel. So that's as simple as it is," he said.

Kulbergs, who formerly headed Latvia's Rail Baltica Commission, also called for the Baltics to stop blaming each other for the project's setbacks and work together.

"Let's stop chasing who's going to be the first one or who's going to build the most kilometers. That's not going to... that's not going anywhere. We need to agree on what is the most efficient way [forward.]," he said.

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