The NATO sign is seen on an Airborne Warning and Control System surveillance plane at a military air base in Lielvarde, Latvia, on Friday. | REUTERS
AFP-JIJI
Aug 2, 2026
Vilnius, Lithuania – When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Rapolas Markevicius was managing a private equity fund in Lithuania — a country on NATO’s eastern flank that fears it might be Moscow’s next target.
Four-and-a-half years later, his new startup Pdkinematics builds precision guidance systems that help drones strike targets more accurately even when GPS signals are jammed, which are supplied to both Ukraine and its European allies.
He is one of several startup founders in the Baltics trying to invigorate the region’s defensive capabilities, as NATO’s eastern members face their own hybrid threats from Russia and its close ally Belarus.
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