A NATO military jet has shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone in Estonian airspace. As Ukraine targets Russia’s Baltic oil facilities more often and more intensely, more such drones are straying into allies’ territory.
NATO confirmed on Tuesday that one of its F16 jets from the Baltic air policing mission based in Lithuania had shot down a drone over Estonian airspace.
Estonia and Latvia both issued air alert threats reporting a drone in their airspace. It was not immediately clear whether they were referring to the same or different aircraft.
What happened?
Estonia’s military said that a drone entered its airspace at around noon local time (0900 GMT/UTC) on Tuesday, entering from Russia into the southeastern part of the country.
It was shot down by a Romanian NATO fighter jet on a training flight with a single missile at 12:14 local time.
“The incident occurred under the conditions of heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia,” the military said.
The military said it had been monitoring the drone before it entry into its airspace, and that the decision to shoot it down had been taken to “minimmize the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure.”
NATO later confirmed that it had shot down a drone over Estonian airspace, it said an investigation was ongoing and NATO was “ready and able to react to any potential air threats.”
Why are drones often crashing in Baltic NATO member states of late?
Tuesday’s incident was the latest of a series of airspace violations in the region in recent weeks, amid intensifying attacks on Russian sites in the Baltic, not least the major oil facilities at Primorsk and Ust-Luga.
The flight path from Ukraine to these sites runs close to the borders to NATO members on the Baltic Sea like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland — and drone defense systems can interfere with the aircrafts’ navigation.
The Baltic countries have broadly blamed Russia in their public responses, saying that Ukraine has a legitimate reason to attack sites in Russia as part of its defensive war.
“These incidents are the direct result of Russia’s war and provocations. Estonia is strengthening cooperation with Ukraine to enhance our air defence and counter-drone capabilities,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a post online.
Nevertheless, the incursions have started to take a political toll recently.
The issue came to a head in Latvia in particular this month, with the coalition government collapsing amid internal arguments over the country’s handling of stray drones landing in its territory.
Prime Minister Evika Silina sacked her defense minister then soon had to resign herself after losing a coalition partner and therefore her majority.
On May 15 in Finland, warnings of drone activity led to disruptions at Helsinki International Airport and in other areas near the coastal capital.
Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nato-planes-down-suspected-ukrainian-drone-over-estonia/a-77215424
