Estonia’s foreign minister dismissed Russian denials that three of its MiG-31 fighter jets crossed into his country’s airspace in mid-September.
The incursions, Margus Tsahkna said during a discussion Monday at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, were a brazen violation of the NATO member’s sovereignty.
The Russian fighters flew over the Gulf of Finland for about 12 minutes before being escorted out by Italian F-35s.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin both denied the violation. They said the MiG-31 jets were on a scheduled flight over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea and did not cross any state borders.
“We took it very seriously, and NATO reacted in a very solid way. It was under NATO control,” Mr. Tsahkna said. “The Russians said it was ‘fake news — nothing happened.”
Mr. Tsahkna was at the United Nations when the Kremlin denied that Russian jets flew into Estonia’s airspace.
“I had the opportunity to show everybody the picture of the planes and also the radar picture,” he said.
Following the incident, Estonia invoked Article 4 of the NATO charter, which calls for consultation among the members.
They didn’t trigger the more weighty Article 5, which states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all members, requiring each to assist the attacked party.
“It was not an immediate threat,” Mr. Tsahkna said. “But it was not, of course, a mistake.”
Afterwards, President Trump said NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace. He commented after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Mr. Trump said action, rather than empty words, would solve the problem.
“He said it and I think it’s a language that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin understands,” Mr. Tsahkna said. “Putin is testing us. He’s testing our military readiness, but he’s also testing our unity.”
Russia will likely continue probing NATO defenses with further incursions like their 12-minute flight over Estonian territory, Mr. Tsahkna said.
“I’m not naive. It will happen again,” he said. “We need to put more pressure on Russia. This is the only way out.”
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are constructing an elaborate defense belt of trenches, tank traps and weapons depots along their borders with Russia and Belarus.
Construction of the Baltic Defense Line began in 2024 and is expected to take up to a decade to complete.
Each country is responsible for building its section of the line. The fortifications align with NATO’s assertion that the alliance won’t give up an inch of territory to any invading forces, Mr. Tsahkna said.
“Russia is playing for time. There have not been any strategic breakthroughs on the battlefield [and Putin’s] running out of resources,” he said. “His economy is running out, and he has been losing hundreds of thousands of people.”
The Kremlin regularly refers to Baltic leaders as “Russophobic” because of their firm stance against Moscow. But Mr. Tsahnka said such insults shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“It’s nothing new, and the facts have proven that we were right about Russia,” he said. “When Putin says, ‘peace,’ he means ‘more war.’”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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