Poland and Estonia report separate airspace violations by Russian military aircraft

Earlier the same day, three Russian MiG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace and were intercepted by NATO aircraft — namely, by two Italian F-35s. Estonia’s foreign ministry condemned the incursion as “brazen.”

The alliance said the MiGs entered the airspace over the Gulf of Finland “without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes.”

In early September, Poland reported that at least 19 Russian drones breached its airspace en masse, some heading toward the strategic logistics hub in Rzeszów. Polish forces managed to down several of them with NATO support, after which Warsaw invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which formally started consultations with the alliance. Polish authorities described the incident as a deliberate Russian provocation.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the drones were capable of carrying ammunition, but that in this instance they were unarmed when they entered Polish airspace. “They were all duds, which suggests to me that Russia tried to test us without starting a war,” Sikorski told The Guardian in Kyiv on Monday.

Romania reported a similar incident the same week as the Polish violation, saying its airspace was breached by a drone during a Russian strike on neighboring Ukraine. The defense ministry in Bucharest said two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled, detecting the drone in national airspace and tracking it until it dropped off from radar.

The drone “orbited [in Romanian airspace] for about 50 minutes, from north-east of [the village of] Chilia Veche to south-west of Izmail, and left national airspace near the town of Pardina, heading towards Ukraine,” the defense ministry said.

Romania’s fighter jets were “supported by German allies…with two Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft,” to monitor the situation.

Debris from Russian attacks on Ukraine has also repeatedly fallen on Romanian territory.

Following the drone incursion on Sept. 9, Poland closed its airspace along the country’s borders with Belarus and Ukraine, a measure set to last for three months. Also in response to Russian actions, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced the launch of Operation Eastern Sentry to strengthen the alliance’s eastern flank.