Under the recently introduced legislation, drunk drivers with a blood alcohol level of over 1.5 parts per thousand will have their vehicles confiscated and sent to Ukraine.

The programme, approved by the Latvian parliament last month, aims to help Ukraine’s war efforts. A convoy of the first eight seized vehicles left a car pound in the capital, Riga, recently, and according to the plans they will be donated to the Ukrainian military and hospitals.

Late last year, Latvia changed the law so that drivers found with three times the legal limit could have their vehicles seized and sold by the government. The change in the law led to a surge in confiscations that filled state pounds in Latvia in a matter of weeks.

As a result, authorities pledged to hand over two dozen cars a week to Twitter Convoy, a Latvian charity that sends donated vehicles to Ukraine.

Latvia sends cars seized from drunk drivers to help Ukraine https://t.co/yiNZKcjkYD

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 9, 2023

„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,” the NGO’s founder, Reinis Poznaks, said.

The first eight cars had a combined value of about 18,500 euros. One owner had left a Russian flag pinned on his seized vehicle.

The decision prompted conflict as about a quarter of Latvia’s population are ethnic Russians. Latvia moved fast after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to ban dozens of websites assessed as disseminating Kremlin propaganda.