The Latvian Minister of Defense resigned this Sunday, following the incursion on Thursday in Latvia of two drones which struck oil storage facilities.
The decision by Minister Andris Spruds follows a call for his resignation by Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina, who declared on X that he had “lost (his) trust and that of the public”, the anti-drone systems having not been deployed quite quickly.
“The incident involving drones this week clearly showed that the political leadership of the Defense sector has failed to keep its promise to guarantee safe skies over our country,” wrote Evika Silina. “It is an immense responsibility which requires clear results,” she added, recalling that the country is among the largest contributors to NATO in relative terms – with almost 5% of its GDP devoted to defense.
Colonel Raivis Melnis must now take the post of Minister of Defense, according to the head of the Latvian government.
An oil storage site affected
Two drones crossed the Russian border on Thursday to crash in Latvia. One of them hit an oil storage site in Rezekne, in the east of the country. A fire broke out, quickly contained by firefighters, according to the national police.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga said the drones entered Latvia because of “Russian electronic warfare.” These would be Ukrainian drones hijacked by Russia.
Several Russian or Ukrainian drones have crashed in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, former Soviet republics bordering Russia and/or Belarus, since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian drones recently fell in Estonia and Lithuania while kyiv targeted a Russian port in the Gulf of Finland, near Saint Petersburg.
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