The decision to shoot down the drone was made to prevent it from posing a threat to people in Latvia, Defence Minister Raivis Melnis told LETA.
“The decision to shoot down the drone was made taking into account the danger it posed. Drones entering Latvian territory can endanger our residents, therefore they must be destroyed,” the minister stressed, adding that there was no way to guarantee that an unmanned aerial vehicle would simply crash somewhere in a swamp or forest.
He also dismissed concerns voiced by some residents that several drones, rather than just one, had allegedly been spotted.
Melnis explained that only one drone had been detected, while residents may have mistaken the noise generated by accelerating fighter jets for additional aircraft.
As previously reported,
early on Friday morning allied fighter jets shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle that had entered Latvian airspace
near Lake Boževa, approximately five kilometres from the centre of Rugāji in Balvi Municipality, Sandra Kapteine, head of the Rugāji administrative association, told LETA.
She stressed that the drone was shot down over a forested area and that no residents or property were harmed. Emergency services are currently working at the scene, Kapteine said.
According to currently available information, the drone entered Latvian airspace as a result of electronic warfare activity carried out by Russia.
NBS SOLDIERS, NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS AND STATE POLICE OFFICERS ARE INVOLVED IN INSPECTING THE AREA.
As the drone was shot down at high altitude, its debris could be scattered across a wide area, said Iveta Bērziņa, a representative of the NBS Joint Headquarters.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, claims that a total of 553 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Friday over 18 Russian regions and occupied Crimea.
As usual, Russian authorities have not disclosed how many unmanned aerial vehicles they failed to intercept. Experts estimate that approximately 10% to 15% of the drones reach their intended targets
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