Estonia says three Russian fighters entered its airspace without permission

Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the foreign ministry said.

It came just over a week after Nato planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over.

Foreign minister Margus Tsakhna said Russia had already violated Estonian airspace four times this year “but today’s incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.”

Russian officials did not immediately comment.

The Russian MiG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, which is a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement.

The aircraft did not have flight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic services.

Italian Air Force F-35 fighter jets, currently deployed as part of the Nato Baltic Air Policing Mission, responded to the incident, according to the statement.

Separately, the Estonian military told The Associated Press the Russian planes flew parallel to the Estonian border from east to west and did not head toward the country’s capital Tallinn.

Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a Nato member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022.

Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory.

The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as US-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing.

“Russia’s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,” Mr Tsakhna said.

The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Friday’s incursion “an extremely dangerous provocation” that “further escalates tensions in the region”.

Estonia, along with other Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia, are seen as being among the most likely targets if Russia one day decides to risk an attack on Nato.

Neighbouring Poland, though much larger, also feels vulnerable. All four countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine.