Two drones flew from Russia into Latvia overnight on Thursday, where they crashed. The Latvian military reported this on Thursday morning.
Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds told Latvian public service media LSM that the drones were likely launched by Ukraine against targets in Russia. He said that NATO military aircraft have been called to the area.
One of the drones crashed into an oil depot near the city of Rezekne, which is located about 40 kilometers west of the Latvian-Russian border. This was reported by the Latvian police, according to LSM. As a result, four empty oil tanks were damaged.
The fire department said it had extinguished a smoldering area of about 30 square meters in one of the empty oil tanks.
On Thursday night at 03:09 Danish time, the Latvian authorities issued a warning to residents in the border area that there were drones in the air and that they should stay indoors.
In Rezekne, all schools will be closed on Thursday, local authorities said.
Several Ukrainian drones crashed into Latvia and neighboring Estonia and Lithuania at the end of March. One of them hit a chimney at a local power plant, while another crashed into a frozen lake, where it exploded. The Ukrainian drones are believed to have been sent to hit military targets in Russia.
The three Baltic countries have never given permission for their territories and airspace to be used in connection with drone attacks against their eastern neighbor, the Baltic foreign ministers said in April.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday morning, according to the AFP news agency, that it had intercepted around 347 Ukrainian drones overnight.
/ritzau/Reuters.
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