Russia is currently conducting military exercises with simulated missile attacks against Estonia.
According to Bloomberg News, Estonia’s Defense Ministry said that provocative behaviour has intensified on Estonia’s border with Russia ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit scheduled for next week in Madrid.
Estonia didn’t explain how it knew of the simulations, although Russia has made NATO countries the subject of military exercises in the past. Russia’s Foreign Ministry referred questions to the Defense Ministry, whose spokesman Igor Konashenkov didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also didn’t reply.
Russia announced Tuesday that ships from its Baltic Fleet will carry out large-scale maneuvers in the Gulf of Finland including mine-laying, artillery firing and anti-submarine drills, the Interfax news service reported.
Separately, the Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tallinn, saying that a border patrol helicopter flew into Estonian airspace for two minutes on June 18, the first such instance since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
This is the second time in 2022 that Russian aircraft have breached Estonia's airspace. Last year, there were five such incidents.
While this is a rare event in Estonia, Lithuania's Ministry of Defense reports that Russian warplanes fly through the country's airspace every week, usually without prefiled flight plans and switched off transponders. Last week there were eight violations and 13 the week before.
Last month, Russia also briefly flew a helicopter in Finnish airspace.
