A foreign drone came down in a forest in eastern Latvia, most likely on 18 October, and it took six days and a sharp-eyed local to find it.
The drone found in Latvia on Saturday, 24 October, was lying in a state-owned forest in Liepna parish, Alūksne municipality, close to the Russian border. The National Armed Forces said it probably entered Latvian airspace six days earlier, on 18 October.
Key facts
When: likely came down on 18 October; debris found on the morning of Saturday, 24 October
Where: state-owned forest in Liepna parish, Alūksne municipality, near the Russian border
What: a foreign drone, the Defence Ministry says; its origin is still being established
Damage: nobody hurt, no damage to civilian infrastructure, no further threat found
Next: a State Police criminal case and an internal army review
What happened in Liepna?
On 18 October, people in Liepna reported something that sounded like an explosion. The army dug into its airspace surveillance data and found signs of an unidentified object moving over Latvia. Soldiers and police searched for a crash site on 18 and 19 October, then called it off. The data wasn’t enough to confirm anything had fallen, or where.
On Saturday morning a resident reported possible drone debris in the woods. Police checked the hard-to-reach patch of forest and confirmed it. By Saturday evening, explosive ordnance disposal soldiers from the Home Guard’s 54th Combat Support Battalion had cleared the debris out.
State Police have opened a criminal case under Chapter 10 of the Criminal Law, which covers crimes against the state, TVNET reports.
Why was there no cell broadcast alert?
According to the army, the information it had at the time wasn’t enough to clearly identify a drone and confirm a threat, so the criteria for a cell broadcast warning weren’t met. It has now opened an internal review of the incident and the decisions taken.
Whose drone was it?
Nobody has said officially. The minister has a theory. Defence Minister Raivis Melnis told Latvian Radio that Ukraine struck Russian targets on 18 October. If this was a Ukrainian drone, he said, it may have been shot down on the Russian side and glided in, which could be why it didn’t show up in Latvian systems, LSM reports. He admitted the eastern air defences, already beefed up with radars and interceptor drones, can still have holes, and said more systems are needed.
The army warns that Russian electronic warfare can scramble drone navigation, so more strays can’t be ruled out. It’s not the first this year: drones came down in Krāslava in March and Rēzekne in May. Defence has been close to home all autumn, too, from the Namejs exercise putting soldiers and checkpoints on Riga’s streets to mobilisation drills and anti-tank barriers.
Police thanked the resident who called it in, and Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava asked people to keep reporting anything useful. See something odd, report it.
Stay alert, Latvia.
Photo: Liepna Orthodox Church of the Prophet Elijah, a village landmark, not the crash site, Dāvis Kļaviņš / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0