{"id":588999,"date":"2026-10-14T11:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T08:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=588999"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T08:50:33","slug":"latvia-to-expand-military-powers-to-use-force-on-border-with-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/latvia-to-expand-military-powers-to-use-force-on-border-with-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Latvia to Expand Military Powers to Use Force on Border With Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The Latvian government has decided to expand the powers of services guarding the state border to use force against attackers and other threats. The decision was made during the closed session of a government meeting on October 13. Latvian Prime Minister <strong>Andris Kulbergs<\/strong> told Latvian Television in an interview on October 14, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lsm.lv\/raksts\/zinas\/latvija\/14.10.2026-kulbergs-bus-paplasinatas-iespejas-ar-speku-versties-pret-draudiem-pierobeza.a667466\/\">LSM reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kulbergs, border guards and military personnel will have broader powers to use so-called kinetic measures along the country\u2019s eastern border. He did not provide details of the new powers.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIt is unacceptable for us to be tested. We must not allow escalation while failing to use the means available to us\u201d<\/em>, Kulbergs said.<\/p>\n<p>The decision follows an <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/latvia-reports-provocation-armed-masked-men-herd-migrants-toward-border\">incident on the Belarusian-Latvian border<\/a> in early October, when masked individuals drove a group of migrants towards the border and threatened Latvian border guards with an object resembling a weapon. The masked individuals then entered Latvian territory, damaged a distribution cabinet, stole surveillance cameras and fled to Belarus before Latvian border guards arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Latvian government has decided to expand the powers of services guarding the state border to use force against attackers and other threats. The decision was made during the closed session of a government meeting on October 13. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs told Latvian Television in an interview on October 14, LSM reports. According [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":585933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6acf425d01ef6.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Latvia to Expand Military Powers to Use Force on Border With Belarus"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143291,143284,143090],"tags":[143171],"class_list":["post-588999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-army","category-world","category-politics","tag-latvija"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589000,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588999\/revisions\/589000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}