When Italian jets responding from NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission violated Estonian airspace, Russian pilots disregarded their signals, a senior Estonian military official said on Saturday.
After over 20 Russian drones invaded Polish airspace on September 10, the 12-minute invasion was the most recent test of the alliance's capacity to counter Russian airborne threats.
After Tallinn reported that three fighter jets had entered Estonian airspace without authorization on Friday, Russia's defense ministry denied on Saturday that its planes had flown into Estonian airspace.
The denial was rejected by Estonian officials, who claimed that radar and visual contact verified the violation and implied that it might be a strategy to divert Western resources from Ukraine.
According to the Estonian military, the Russian MIG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace Friday between 9:58 and 10:10 a.m. local time in the vicinity of Vaindloo, a small island in the Baltic Sea's Gulf of Finland. According to a government statement, it was Russia's fourth breach of airspace this year.
The chief of Estonia's Military Intelligence Center, Col. Ants Kiviselg, told The Associated Press that it "needs to be confirmed" whether the border violation was intentional. The Russian jets "must have known that they are in (Estonian) airspace," he claimed, notwithstanding.
.png)
