NATO jet shoots down what’s believed to be a Ukrainian drone over Estonia

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Romanian F-16 jet deployed with NATO air policing forces in the Baltics shot down what is believed to have been a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia on Tuesday, authorities said.

Ukraine apologized for the “unintended incident,” and Russia warned of retaliation if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries.

Given the trajectory of the drone, “we decided that we need to take it down,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

“Most probably, today we can say that it was (a) drone which was, let’s say, meant to hit some Russian targets,” he told The Associated Press.

It was the latest in a string of incidents in recent months in which Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory, with Western officials blaming what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the weapons.

Those incidents have come as Kyiv has steadily ramped up its drone raids, focusing on energy facilities and arms factories deep inside Russia as its domestic technology and scale of production improve.

On Sunday, authorities in Russia said that one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes on the country killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others.

Long-range drone attacks are a hallmark of the war, which began more than four years ago when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Experts from Ukraine and Estonia were working on measures to prevent such occurrences in the future, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Ukraine apologizes “to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents,” Tykhyi said in an X post.

Estonia’s defense minister said that Ukraine has been advised to be careful.

“Our messages have not changed,” Pevkur said. “We’ve said to the Ukrainians all the time that if you’re attacking Russian positions or Russian targets, then these trajectories have to be as far from the NATO territory as possible.”

The strikes have caused some tensions within the Baltic states, which are supporting Ukraine’s war effort, and between them and Russia.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its acronym SVR, said in a statement Tuesday that Ukraine is preparing to begin launching drone attacks against Russia from the territory of the Baltic countries and warned of retaliation.

It said that the Ukrainian military personnel had already deployed to Latvia and warned that the country’s membership in NATO wouldn’t protect it from “just retribution.”

“Modern surveillance systems allow precise determination of the coordinates of the drone launch site,” the SVR said.

Last week, Latvia’s government collapsed, with the prime minister resigning after the defense minister was forced to quit over the handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine, and his party withdrew its support.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs posted on X that “Russia is lying about Latvia allowing any country to use Latvian airspace and territory to launch attacks against Russia or any other country.”

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a statement following Tuesday’s incident that Ukraine has every right to strike Russian military targets.

“Estonia has not permitted its airspace to be used for attacks against Russia,” he said. “Incidents such as this are linked to Russian jamming activities.”

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Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Kostya Manenkov, The Associated Press