The alleged incursion came at a moment of heightened tension on Nato\u2019s eastern border, after Warsaw last week complained that around 20 Russian drones overflew its territory \u2013 though the Kremlin denied targeting Poland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree Russian fighter MiG-31 entered Estonian airspace in the Vaindloo Island area without permission, and remained there for approximately 12 minutes,\u201d the Estonian defence forces said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fighter jets did not have flight plans, and their transponders were switched off. At the time of the airspace violation, the fighter jets did not have two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nato spokesperson Allison Hart called the event \u201cyet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and Nato\u2019s ability to respond\u201d.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow.<\/p>\n
\u2018No accident\u2019<\/p>\n
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal\u2019s announcement \u201cto request Nato Article 4 consultations\u201d over the \u201cunacceptable\u201d violation is the second time in under two weeks that a member country has invoked the clause.<\/p>\n
Article 4 states that a Nato member can convene urgent talks when it feels its \u201cterritorial integrity, political independence or security\u201d are at risk.<\/p>\n
Warsaw invoked Article 4 after it shot down what it said were Russian drones on September 9. Romania complained of a similar incursion days later.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy \u2013 whose country is at war with Russia \u2013 on Friday accused Russia of expanding its \u201cdestabilising activity\u201d with the series of airspace violations in Poland, Romania and Estonia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not accidents. This is a systematic Russian campaign directed against Europe, against Nato, against the West. And it requires a systemic response,\u201d Zelenskyy posted on X, calling for a \u201cstrong\u201d response.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs threats escalate, so too will our pressure,\u201d added European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who earlier in the day had presented for EU member state approval a 19th package of sanctions targeting Moscow over the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n
Italy assumed command of the Nato Baltic Air Policing mission \u2013 Operation Baltic Eagle III \u2013 on August 1, with the Italian air force\u2019s F-35 aircraft taking responsibility for surveillance of Baltic airspace.<\/p>\n
Russia has often tested Western air defences as its invasion of Ukraine grinds on, but Estonia complained that the sorties have become more provocative in recent months.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia has already violated Estonia\u2019s airspace four times this year, which in itself is unacceptable. But today\u2019s incursion… is unprecedentedly brazen,\u201d Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said.<\/p>\n
Readiness tested<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tsahkna said Russia\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires in Estonia had been summoned to the foreign ministry to receive a formal complaint.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Estonia complained that a Russian MI-8 helicopter had violated its airspace, also near the island of Vaindloo.<\/p>\n
According to the Estonian defence forces, the helicopter entered the country\u2019s airspace for about four minutes without making contact with air traffic control.<\/p>\n
It also did not have a flight plan, its transponder was turned off and it did not communicate with Estonian air traffic control. Similar incidents occurred on May 13 and June 22.<\/p>\n
Last week, Poland and its Italian and Dutch Nato allies scrambled jets to intercept what was around 20 Russian drones prowling its airspace. Some of them were shot down.<\/p>\n
The UK, Germany and France announced plans to reinforce joint air patrols with more jets based on Nato\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The alleged incursion came at a moment of heightened tension on Nato\u2019s eastern border, after Warsaw last week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[68,25352,3458,95,30701,8452,30693,12702,30698,30696,11880,71,30699,305,42,30694,30695,30703,43,1523,30702,20561,8221,3048,1529,40,38,41,39,30700,30697],"class_list":["post-32259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-air","tag-airspace","tag-allies","tag-and","tag-complaints","tag-dangerous","tag-denounce","tag-estonia","tag-estonian","tag-fighters","tag-finland","tag-from","tag-gulf","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-incursion","tag-mig31","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-over","tag-provocation","tag-reckless","tag-russian","tag-said","tag-three","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-triggering","tag-violated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}