Latvian defense minister resigns amid leadership turnover on NATO’s eastern flank – POLITICO

Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds has resigned after Ukrainian drones flew into the country's airspace from Russia last week and hit an oil storage facility, the latest defense leadership change on NATO's eastern flank in recent months.

The Baltic country's Prime Minister Evika Siliņa said she asked him to step down because it "demonstrated that the political leadership of the defense sector has failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country."

The minister "has lost my trust and that of the public," she wrote on X, adding she had asked Latvian army Col. Raivis Melnis, the defense ministry’s representative in Ukraine, to replace him.