Three Russian fighter aircraft entered the Estonian airspace without permission on Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, in yet another NATO incursion.
The incident prompted the Estonian foreign ministry to summon a Russian diplomat to lodge a protest. This comes after Russian drones violated both Polish and Romanian airspace earlier this month.
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.”
His ministry said that the incursion took place over the Gulf of Finland and three Russian MIG-31 fighters were involved. Tsakhna called for increased political and economic pressure on Moscow to tackle its “increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness”
“Russia’s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,” he said.
The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.
Russia's Polish and Romanian incursions
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently told the country's parliament that Poland had identified 19 violations of its airspace in one day and shot down at least three drones, adding that no one was harmed in the "Russian action".
Romania's defence ministry had also said last week that the country's airspace had been breached by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine.
NATO's collective security is based on its Article 5 principle: if one member is attacked, the entire alliance defends it. Poland, Romania, and Estonia are all members of the alliance.
Article 5 of the NATO charter has only been invoked once in the history of NATO, following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
{{/usCountry}}Article 5 of the NATO charter has only been invoked once in the history of NATO, following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
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