3 Russian fighter jets enter Estonian airspace without permission, defence minister calls incident 'unprecedentedly brutal'

Three Russian MIG-31 fighter jets on entered Estonian airspace without permission on Friday, Estonia's government said in a statement. The government said that the incursion took place over the Gulf of Finland and the three jets stayed in the airspace for 12 minutes. Earlier, European and NATO sources told the news agency that Estonian airspace was violated by Russian military jets

The Estonian government has summoned a Russian diplomat to protest against the incident. The country's defence minister said that the incident was 'unprecedentedly brutal'.

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


"Russia's ever-increasing testing of borders and aggressiveness must be responded to by rapidly strengthening political and economic pressure."

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

The foreign minister said that such actions cannot be tolerated and must be met with swift political and economic pressure.

In a recent statement, Estnia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the 'so-called' Russian elections to local occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine.

"Results of these sham elections are null and void," the ministry said. "The Kremlin only delegitimizes its own political leadership and the legal system of Russia by this farce which has no relation to the rule of law and democratic procedures in line with international standards."

Estonia opposed the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine through aggression, illegal occupation or sham elections.

The latest Russian jet incident comes just over a week after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of September 9-10, prompting NATO jets to down some of them and Western officials to say Russia was testing the alliance's readiness and resolve.

A staunch supporter of Ukraine, Tallinn said in May that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a "shadow fleet" defying Western sanctions on Moscow.

(With inputs from agencies)