Latvian PM: Putin stepping up hybrid war due to Ukraine losses

Published on

23/07/2026 - 10:15 GMT+2

Latvia’s Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has told Euronews that Russia and Belarus are intensifying their hybrid war against the Baltic state as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin looks to divert attention from losses on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Latvia has recently become thefocal point of what EU governments describe as Russia and Belarus' hybrid campaign against neighbouring states, with Belarus' President Aliaksandr Lukashenka using the state-sponsored exploitation of migrants to exert pressure on the EU's eastern border.

“We’re being tested,” Prime Minister Kulbergs told Euronews’ morning show,Europe Today. “At this moment, it is us. At any given moment it is our neighbours in Lithuania, Estonia, Finland or Poland.”