Reminded of this case and asked if the equipment at the disposal of the State Border Guard would be able to face a “Shahed” type drone, Pujāts explained that in the specific case the control unit was destroyed. So there was no way to act on the control unit of the drone and take control of it.
Meanwhile, the equipment of the State Border Guard has been purchased with the aim of catching the operators and taking control of the drones, which is only possible if the control unit is in working order, explained Pujāts.
He also revealed that the State Border Guard received information about the aforementioned case late, namely when the drone had fallen. “We were not involved from the moment he entered the airspace,” Pujāt admitted.
He emphasized that this situation has been discussed and in several cases, timely information has been received after this incident, when there were suspicions about an aircraft near the border of Latvia.
When asked if there have been any attempts by Russia to approach Latvia with drones in recent days, Pujāts admitted that there had not been any. However, episodic signals of aircraft near the border are received.
As reported, on September 7, a Russian “Shahed” type drone fell in Gaigalava parish of Rēzekne region. The Latvian National Armed Forces have monitored the situation, but no decision was made either to shoot down this drone or to take the NATO fighter jets on duty in Latvia into the air, which has earned criticism from some of the public. When the drone fell, the warhead that had not exploded initially was deactivated.
Following the incident, the Ministry of Defense has started consultations with allies who have recently faced similar incidents.
An investigation has also been started. The first conclusions could be known at the beginning of October, the LETA agency found out at the Ministry of Defense.
2024-09-29 04:28:04