A Romanian F-16 NATO jet shot down a drone over Estonia after analysis of its trajectory. A local resident reported seeing two NATO fighter jets before a loud bang and said the drone crashed about 30 metres from the nearest residential building. Estonia’s defense minister said the drone needed to be taken down. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson apologized to Estonia and Baltic partners for unintended incidents and said specialized institutions were cooperating to prevent recurrence. Ukraine blamed Moscow, saying it aimed at legitimate targets in Russia and had not attempted to use Baltic airspace for drones. The incident followed other cases where Russian electronic jamming appeared to push Ukrainian drones off course, including a Latvia crisis tied to drone explosions at an oil storage facility.
"A Romanian F-16 Nato jet shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday in what appears to be the latest case of Russian electronic jamming diverting long-range Ukrainian drones into the alliance's territory. A local resident told the Estonian public broadcaster, ERR, that he had seen two fighter jets part of a Nato force policing the skies over the Baltic states flying in the area before a loud bang that brought the drone down. He said the drone had crashed about 30 metres from the nearest residential building."
"After analysing its trajectory, we decided that we need to take it down, Estonia's defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, said. The spokesperson for Ukraine's foreign ministry, Heorhii Tykhyi, said: We apologise to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents. We have been and remain in close cooperation between our specialised institutions to get to the heart of the matter in each case and seek ways to prevent them."
"He blamed Moscow for the incident, saying that Kyiv had been aiming at legitimate targets inRussia and that it had never attempted to use Baltic airspace for its drones. It was the latest in a series of incidents in which Ukrainian drones have apparently been pushed off course by Russian electronic jamming. The Latvian government collapsed last week over a crisis that stemmed from its response to a similar incident in which two drones exploded at an oil storage facility."
"Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service said on Tuesday that Ukraine planned to launch drone attacks against Russia from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and warned of just retribution. Officials from the three Baltic countries deny plans for their airspace to be used for the launch or overflight of drones. Russia is lying about Latvia allowing any country to use Latvian airspace and territory to launch attacks against Russia or any other country, the Latvian president, Edgars Rinkevics, wrote on X."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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