Raivis Melnis

person · Minister of Defence of LatviaCredibility: 80%

Why this score? Serving Latvian defence minister; speaks with access to national air-defence and NBS operational information, and his statements on incursions are corroborable against NBS and NATO air-policing records. Discounted from the institutional baseline because he is also an interested party on his own ministry's procurement and readiness commitments.

Tracked Statements (1)

The drone shot down over Latvia on August 14 entered from Belarus, and Latvia will keep intercepting and destroying drones that violate its airspace — but it does not yet have enough counter-drone systems or radar along its border, and will deploy domestically produced equipment across its entire frontier with Russia and Belarus by the end of September.^?

— Raivis Melnis · Aug 17, 2026

Topic: ukraine russia war/nato relations

Source ↗

Context: Not yet due. Latvia's defence ministry confirmed the August 14 intercept and the reinforcement of eastern-border air defence, but has published no coverage map for the counter-drone and radar rollout. The Belarus entry point is Melnis's own attribution; the armed forces' same-day account named only Russian electromagnetic interference and did not identify the drone.