At 12:14 on Tuesday afternoon, a single missile left a Romanian F-16 over southeastern Estonia and ended the flight of an uninvited drone.
The Estonian military said the drone crossed in from Russia at around noon local time. The F-16, on a training flight with the Baltic air policing mission, fired within about a quarter of an hour. Estonian authorities said the drone fell in a field between Vortsjarv and Poltsamaa in central Estonia. No one was hurt, and a search for the debris was under way.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said it was the first time a NATO jet had downed a suspected Ukrainian drone over the country. The drone was probably Ukrainian, he told the Delfi news outlet, and was headed for targets in Russia.
Jamming, not intent
Estonia’s military pointed to “heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia”. It said it had tracked the drone before it entered Estonian airspace and chose to shoot to “minimmize the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure.” NATO confirmed the shootdown, said an investigation was ongoing and added that it was “ready and able to react to any potential air threats.”
Pevkur said he spoke to Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov right after. “Estonia has not granted permission to use its airspace to anyone except its allies, and the Ukrainians did not ask for such permission either,” he said. Fedorov apologized, Pevkur added, “while also expressing satisfaction that we had shot the drone down.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, also apologized: “We apologize to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents.” He said Russia keeps steering Ukrainian drones into the Baltics deliberately, alongside “intensified propaganda”. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna wrote that “these incidents are the direct result of Russia’s war and provocations”, and that Estonia is deepening cooperation with Ukraine on air defence and counter-drone capabilities.
A run of incidents
The route from Ukraine to Russian oil facilities at Primorsk and Ust-Luga passes close to the borders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, and drone defense systems can disrupt the aircraft’s navigation. Strikes on those sites have intensified. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed over 300 Ukrainian drones overnight on May 19.
Latvia issued an air raid alert in eastern regions after detecting one drone shortly before noon, and trains and schools near the Russian border were disrupted. It was not clear whether that was the same aircraft. In Finland on May 15, drone warnings disrupted Helsinki International Airport. And in Latvia the issue has had political fallout: the coalition government collapsed this month over its handling of stray drones. Prime Minister Evika Silina sacked her defense minister, then had to resign after losing a coalition partner and her majority.
Russia’s intelligence service accused Ukraine of planning drone launches from Latvian bases. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics replied: “Russia is lying about Latvia allowing any country to use Latvian airspace and territory to launch attacks against Russia or any other country.”
Sources
- NATO planes down suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia
- NATO jet downs suspected stray Ukrainian drone over Estonia in first such case
Sources
- NATO planes down suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia
- NATO jet downs suspected stray Ukrainian drone over Estonia in…
