Latvian centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina announced her resignation on Thursday after the Progressives Party, her left-leaning coalition partner, withdrew support, leaving her without a parliamentary majority.

“I am resigning, but I am not giving up,” Silina, who has been prime minister since 2023, said in a televised statement.

Her resignation came days after Defence Minister Andris Spruds from the Progressives Party was forced to resign over the government's handling of several incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine crossing into Latvian territory. Silina said Spruds had lost her trust and that of the public, failing to deliver “safe skies” over the country.

On May 7, two suspected Ukrainian drones entered Latvia, one crashing at a fuel storage facility. Multiple Ukrainian drones headed for Russia have hit Baltic countries since March, as well as other European nations since the Ukraine war began. The incidents have sparked domestic criticism of Baltic states' ability to respond to military threats.

Silina’s resignation comes just months before general elections due in October. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, tasked with appointing a new head of government, is set to meet with parliamentary party representatives on Friday.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha offered to help the Baltic states and Finland prevent such incidents, claiming the events in Latvia were “the result of Russian electronic warfare deliberately diverting Ukrainian drones from their targets in Russia.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com