Russia does not want to have injured Estonian airspace

Fighter jets above the Baltic Sea

Russia does not want to have injured Estonian airspace

Three Russian fighter jets would have injured Estonia’s airspace, according to the NATO state. What triggers outrage there does not want to understand Moscow as a provocation: the flight route was compliant.

Russia’s government has denied Estonia that three Russian fighter jets are said to have violated the airspace of Baltic NATO country. “The flight was strictly complied with the international airspace rules without violating the borders of other states,” said the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, according to the state news agency TASS.

“During the flight, the MIG-31 jets did not deviate from the agreed flight route and did not injure the Estonian airspace,” it said. Rather, the route over neutral waters more than three kilometers north of the Estonian Baltic Sea island of Vaindloo. The information from Moscow could not be checked independently.

Estonia’s army had presented the incident differently and reported a new violation of his airspace by three Russian fighter jets on Friday, which in the morning near Vaindloo had entered the airspace of the EU state and would have been in it for a total of twelve minutes. This information could not be verified at first.

NATO reacted immediately and intercepted the Russian planes, said a NATO spokeswoman. However, what exactly happened in the interception maneuver remained unclear. Usually, fighter aircraft rose in such airspace injuries and accompany the other jets out of the airspace again.

After the incident, Estonia applied for consultations according to Article 4 of the NATO contract. The article provides for consultations with the allies when a NATO state sees itself at risk from the outside.

On Friday evening, Poland reported that two Russian fighter jets would have approached in the deep flight of a Polish drilling rig in the Baltic Sea. The Ministry of the Interior said they had flown to the Petrobaltic platform at a flight altitude of 150 meters. According to the border protection, the security zone over the platform was violated.

Last week, more than 20 Russian drones had entered Polish airspace. NATO jets shot some of them.