Russian MiG-31 warplanes violated Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, ignoring signals from NATO stealth jets, a senior Estonian military official confirmed. This provocative act, which occurred on Friday, September 19, between 9:58 AM and 10:10 AM local time in the Vaindloo area, sparked an emergency response from NATO, involving F-35 fighter jets sent to intercept the Russian aircraft.

Estonia swiftly condemned the incident as a “reckless” and “brazen” attempt to intimidate the Baltic state, demanding urgent talks with its diplomatic allies. Colonel Ants Kiviselg, commander of Estonia's Military Intelligence Centre, stated that Russian pilots acknowledged but seemingly ignored communications from Italian F-35 fighter jets, which explains the prolonged violation. This marks the fourth such breach by the Kremlin this year alone, according to Estonian officials, who firmly dismissed Russia's denial of the incident.

The Russian jets, originating from an airfield near Petrozavodsk in north-western Russia and heading towards the Kaliningrad exclave, were initially tracked by Finnish fighter jets before being escorted by Italian jets from Estonia's Ämari Air Base into international skies. While Colonel Kiviselg noted that it remains unconfirmed if the violation was deliberate, he asserted that the Russian pilots