Latvian defense minister resigns, following lagging response to drone incursions

RIGA — Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds resigned on Sunday following several criticized shortcomings in drone detection and lagging mobile alarms after drones entered the country’s airspace in the direction of Russia and hit an oil storage plant. 

The official announced his resignation during a press conference yesterday evening, stating that the decision was made “in order to protect Latvia’s army from divisive political campaigning.” 

The declaration came shortly after Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa convened an extraordinary meeting of the coalition partners Sunday where she called on him to step down, her office told Breaking Defense in an emailed statement. 

“I have made a decision — the Minister of Defense has lost [both] my and the public’s trust, and I have requested his resignation,” the state-funded Latvian national broadcaster LSM quoted Siliņa as saying, which her office confirmed was accurate. 

The prime minister cited in part the poor response to recent drone airspace violations as one of the motives. 

On May 7, several drones penetrated Latvian airspace across the Russian border and two crashed into its territory, with one damaging an empty oil storage facility in Rēzekne in eastern Latvia.

After the incident, Siliņa highlighted a lack of a reactive posture by defense authorities. Military drone detection systems failed to identify the incoming aircraft, and mobile warnings were not sent to residents’ phones until approximately an hour after it had already crashed.

“Defense is an area to which we have given significant support, taking away funds from other areas, a 2-billion-euro budget — [it] also requires the [defense] minister to have a greater understanding of what will be asked of him,” Siliņa reportedly said.

According to the national broadcaster LSM, present at the media briefing, the prime minister, when confronted with repeated demands for Sprūds’ resignation after the event, said that she “certainly does not assess this situation as good and satisfactory.”

In a post on X, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sunday that the drones in question were of Ukrainian origin, and flew into the Baltic country after investigations found that “Russian electronic warfare deliberately diverted them from their targets in Russia.”

Latvia is set to hold upcoming elections in October, which may have played a role in the shake-up.