A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet flying over the Baltic Sea after violating Estonian airspace, September 19, 2025. FORSVARSMAKTEN/AFP
10 days after around 20 drones entered Polish airspace, three Russian fighter jets violated the borders of another country on the eastern flank – Estonia – on Friday, September 19. While investigators have yet to determine whether the drone incursions during the night of September 9-10 were intentional, and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) investigation is ongoing, Estonian authorities said the roughly 12-minute MiG-31 overflights were "unprecedented in their brutality." These incidents have come amid a climate of persistent military tension between Russia and European countries, which now extends beyond the Ukrainian front alone.
Subscribers only
Poland shoots down Russian drones after unprecedented airspace violation
"Russia has violated Estonian airspace four times already this year (...) Russia's ever-increasing testing of borders and aggressiveness must be responded to by rapidly strengthening political and economic pressure," said Estonia's minister of foreign affairs, Margus Tsahkna, on Friday. Estonia is now among the countries most exposed to Russian aggression, but Tallinn does not have its own combat aviation and relies on NATO allies, who, in principle, provide round-the-clock air policing in rotation.
