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The Estonian foreign ministry has issued a strong condemnation of what it called a "brazen" incursion by Russian warplanes into Estonian airspace. Officials stated that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets, flying over the Gulf of Finland, entered Estonian airspace without authorization on Friday and remained there for a total of 12 minutes.
The ministry said it summoned the Russian chargé d'affaires "to lodge a protest", while top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas described the incursion as "an extremely dangerous provocation". Estonian media has reported the Russian jets had their transponders switched off in the airspace of a Nato member.
The Russian military has not publicly commented on the issue.
In a statement, Estonian Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Friday's incursion was "unprecedentedly brazen". He continued: "Russia's increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure."
The minister added Russia had already violated Estonia's airspace four times in 2025.
Tensions have escalated between the Nato military alliance and Russia since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last week, Poland and Romania - both Nato members - said Russian drones breached their airspace. Poland's military said it had shot down at least three Russian drones, with prime minister Donald Tusk saying 19 drones were recorded entering Polish airspace.
Russia insisted the incident was not deliberate, and its defence ministry said there had been "no plans" to target facilities on Polish soil.
Belarus, a close Russian ally, said the drones which entered Polish airspace were an accident, after their navigation systems were jammed. Several days later, Romania's defence ministry said it had detected a Russian drone when two F-16 jets were monitoring the country's border with Ukraine, after "Russian air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube [river]".
The ministry said the drone later disappeared from the radar.
