The key facts

  • An orange warning was declared in the Krāslava and Ludza districts
  • The unidentified object left Latvia's airspace at 19:16 and crossed the border with Russia
  • The threat passed at 19:30, according to the Latvian Air Force

The warning and its cancellation

Residents of two eastern districts of Latvia — Krāslava and Ludza — received a notification of a possible air threat: the national armed forces declared an orange warning there. This is reported by LSM, based on whose publication the news is covered by Gazeta.Ru. According to the Latvian Air Force, an unidentified flying object left the country's airspace at 19:16 and crossed the Latvian-Russian border, after which the threat to the districts' airspace passed at 19:30 (20:30 Moscow time).

Context of drones in the region

The incident comes amid discussions of airspace violations in the Baltic region. On October 19, Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė's predecessor, Mindaugas Sinkevičius stated that the drone that violated Lithuania's airspace was Ukrainian and had arrived from Poland: according to him, 'this FPV drone is of Ukrainian origin,' and 'Ukrainian representatives confirmed' that contact with one of their drones 'had been lost.' He also said the UAV was equipped with explosives. Earlier, the State Duma proposed shooting down drones over the Baltic states. The sources do not confirm any connection between the Latvian incident and these reports: no information is provided about the type or origin of the unidentified object over Latvia.