Newsletters
Three Russian fighter jets briefly entered Estonian airspace on Friday in a serious escalation along NATO’s eastern border, sources told POLITICO.
The MiG-31 interceptors, capable of carrying Russia’s Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, crossed roughly 5 nautical miles into Estonia and flew toward Tallinn. They remained in the area for about 12 minutes before NATO scrambled Italian F-35s to intercept them.
This follows a Sept. 10, incident in which Russian drones violated Polish airspace during attacks on western Ukraine. Polish forces shot down several drones, while NATO planes conducted overnight patrols. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it the first interception of Russian drones on NATO territory.
Poland formally protested to Moscow, which denied responsibility and claimed the drones came from Ukraine. Some Polish airports were temporarily closed for operational reasons.
1 min read
2 min read
