These cars were confiscated from drivers in the capital of Riga on March 8 (Picture: Reuters)
Cars seized from drunk drivers in Latvia are being sent to Ukraine to help their war effort.
With one of the worst drink driving rates in Europe, politicians there changed the law last year so that drivers found more than three times over the limit can have their vehicle confiscated and sold.
Instead of letting impound lots turn into huge car graveyards they turned to Twitter Convoy, an NGO which called for vehicle donations in the wake of Russia’s invasion and has so far dispatched around 1,200.
Founder Reinis Poznaks said: ‘No-one expected that people are drunk-driving so many vehicles, they can’t sell them as fast as people are drinking. So that’s why I came with the idea – send them to Ukraine.’
Reinis Poznaks, founder of the NGO known as Twitter Convoy (Picture: Reuters)
Latvia has one of the highest drink driving rates in Europe (Picture: Reuters)
He laughed as he found a Russian flag pinned in one of the confiscated vehicles, left there by its owner.
Latvian lawmakers pledged to give Twitter Convoy 24 cars a week and the first batch of eight left the capital of Riga on Wednesday.
Once they cross the border, they are handed to the Ukrainian military and hospitals.
More than 4,000 drivers were found over the limit on Latvia’s roads last year, police said, and were involved in almost thousand accidents in 2022.
In a much bigger deal with Ukraine, Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron are expected to agree to the UK and France collaborating on precision strike weapons to combat Russian aggression.
As well as the deal on weapons, the two leaders are also set to agree on working more closely on training Ukrainian marines and supplying weapons to Kyiv during a UK-France summit in Paris on Friday.
The Prime Minister said the West faced ‘unprecedented threats’.
Mr Sunak says he and his French counterpart want to ‘fortify’ Nato so the defensive alliance is ‘ready to take on the challenges of the future’.