Latvian president tells how he caught the war in Kiev two years ago

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has said that on the night of 23-24 February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, he was in Kiev as head of his country's diplomatic mission. He was asked about this in an interview with Nra.lv.

He said that he could not sleep that night and stayed in touch with his Baltic colleagues. He noted that he felt that "something bad" would start.

In the middle of the night they announced that the airspace was closed - first over Kharkiv and some Ukrainian cities. Then suddenly the whole airspace of Ukraine was closed. We were no longer thinking about sleep, we were all watching what was happening on social networks, in the media. Then around five in the morning another speech by Putin came out in Kiev, and during this one you could hear distant blows. It was already clear that Ukraine was under the first missile strikes," Rinkevics recalled.

The President noted that already from the early morning Kiev began to be filled with cars. People were trying to leave the city and long traffic jams formed on the roads.

Rinkevics pointed out that at that moment he did not give vent to emotions, but did what he had to do in his position.

We had to start the evacuation. But before that we went to the embassy and within an hour we decided that the Latvian embassy should leave, because the situation is very uncertain.... There were requests from TV channels, radio, from Latvia asking for interviews," Rinkevics said.

He pointed out that he received a lot of calls that day and had to remotely join an emergency meeting of the government in Latvia.

Even the day before, I was suffering from a cold, but since the morning of 24 February, I have simply 'forgotten' about the illness because of everything that has started," he said.

Edgars Rinkevics also recalled a "surreal feeling" when he heard the echo of a missile strike from his hotel window and then, with a short delay, the same sound came from the CNN broadcast on.