Riga has already announced that investigators are investigating the drone that crashed in the east of the country on Saturday.
“The explosive warhead got stuck half a meter underground and was neutralized on the spot, avoiding detonation,” Latvian Armed Forces Commander General Leonidas Kalninis said at a press conference.
This “allowed our military intelligence officers to collect all the wreckage and remains of the drone for further investigation, the details of which will be shared with all of our NATO partners,” he said.
Due to the ongoing investigation, the general did not specify how or when the drone was deactivated.
The commander of the Latvian Air Force, Colonel Viesturas Masulis, said that “the drone was not aimed at a military target in our country. He seemed to have flown to Latvia”.
“Our air defenses spotted the drone while it was still deep in Belarusian airspace, so we had time to react,” he told a briefing.
Defense Minister Andris Sprudas said that the army had already sent additional mobile anti-aircraft units to the Latvian border.
Latvian President Edgaras Rinkevičius already noticed on Sunday that airspace violations near NATO’s eastern borders have increased.
Romania said on Sunday that a Russian drone had entered its airspace overnight to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
NATO member Poland has also recorded at least two instances of its airspace being violated by Russian missiles or drones that attacked Ukraine, most recently in December.
2024-09-10 11:49:32