Two stray Ukrainian drones flew over the Russian border last Thursday and crashed on Latvian soil, one of them exploding at an oil storage facility in eastern Latvia. According to Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha, the drones were diverted by Russia’s electronic warfare. Latvia and Lithuania have called on NATO to boost air defenses in their region after the incident.
Sprūds, an academic first appointed in Sept. 2023, said in a long post on X that he decided to leave “to protect the Latvian army from being dragged into a political campaign” and to prevent critics from doubting the “readiness of the Ministry of Defense, the National Armed Forces.”
In October, the defense ministers of Romania and Lithuania had to step down over political scandals in the midst of their countries’ rearmament, making Estonia the only Baltic country with a stable defense chief for now. Recent elections in Hungary and Bulgaria have also led to the arrival of new defense ministers.
Latvia is leading the drone coalition for Ukraine to help Kyiv to retain drone warfare supremacy through stable supply and supporting drone manufacturing in the West. The country is facing parliamentary elections in October.