Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds said he was resigning. This happened after two Ukrainian Dronelaunched, presumably, on targets in Russia, entered the airspace of Latvia from the Russian border and hit objects on the territory of the Baltic republic, “lost”.
The incident occurred on the night of May 7. According to the Latvian authorities, one of the drones fell to the territory of the oil depot in the city of Rezekne, about 40 km from the border with Russia. As a result, four fuel tanks were damaged. It is claimed that they were all empty.
The second drone is also associated with a strike on infrastructure in the region, including an incident affecting the radar of the Riga-Daugavpils train.
Sprudç took responsibility for the fact that the drones were not intercepted in a timely manner. Earlier, he declared his readiness to resign if such a decision is made by the Seimas, the Latvian legislature.
Opposition parties demanded his resignation, accusing the Ministry of insufficient effectiveness Air Defense. Against the backdrop of political pressure and public criticism, the minister decided to leave.
NATO has launched airborne fighters of the air police mission stationed in the Baltic States. However, none of them knocked out drones. It was stated that this was not done, since “there was no guarantee that strikes using combat aircraft will not lead to negative consequences on the ground.”
Recall that earlier the official Riga blamed the strikes of Ukrainian drones on its territory on Russia. Such perverse logic is no longer surprising.
