No-one in armed forces will be disciplined over Rēzekne drone incident

LETA learned from the Ministry of Defence that classified National Armed Forces (NAF) documents and standard operating procedures were analyzed during the service inspection, which is why the final report is also not being made public. The current Minister of Defence, Raivis Melnis, has reviewed the prepared report and instructed the responsible structural units of the National Armed Forces (NBS), as well as the Ministry of Defence, to ensure the implementation of the proposals contained in the report, the Ministry stated. The aim of the proposals is to improve action algorithms, improve mutual information exchange and cooperation between the services involved, as well as strengthen public awareness of possible threats to airspace the Ministry said, though as all this information is classified it is impossible to know what specific measures are planned. Based on the results of the inspection, amendments to the regulatory framework related to the procedure for compensating for losses caused have also been initiated, the Ministry stated. "Recommendations have been developed to eliminate the identified shortcomings and implement the necessary improvements. They will be tested in regular exercises and training of the NAF and other institutions," said LETA. As previously reported, several drones entered Latvian airspace from Russia in the early morning of May 7. Two of them crashed in Rēzekne, damaging an oil product storage facility. It was initially assumed that only one drone had hit the facility. Hours later it was noticed that two had in fact struck it. Following criticism from the public and politicians, then-Defence Minister Andris Sprūds (Progressives) ordered a service inspection to evaluate the response to the drone incidents. But the ramifications turned out to be far larger: under pressure from Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity), Sprūds handed in his resignation and then Siliņa herself resigned as the government coalition collapsed. It is believed the Rēzekne drone were Ukrainian, but had been deflected away from their intended targets in Russia by Russian counter-measures.