TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A NATO fighter jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia on Tuesday, authorities said.
It was the latest in a string of similar incidents in recent months, in which Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory. Western officials previously blamed what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the drones.
Ukraine apologized for the “unintended incident,” without specifying what had happened.
Given the trajectory of the drone, “we decided that we need to take it down,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said, adding that it was “most probably … meant to hit some Russian targets.” The drone was downed by a Romanian F-16 deployed with NATO.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a statement that his country has not granted Ukraine permission to use its airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia, meanwhile, repeated a threat it has made in the past that it would retaliate if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries or if those countries are complicit in their use against Russia.
A recent escalation of long-range strikes came after a May 9-11 ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump said he asked the warring countries to observe but which had little impact.
Fighting along the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russia’s bigger army is engaged in a slow slog, is continuing. There is no sign a peace settlement is any closer despite U.S. diplomatic efforts.
Ukraine ramps up its drone strikes
Ukraine has steadily ramped up its drone raids against Russia, focusing on energy facilities and arms factories deep inside enemy territory as its domestic technology and scale of production improve. Russian drones aimed at Ukraine have also apparently strayed into neighboring NATO countries such as Poland and Romania.
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.
Estonia tells Ukraine to be careful
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 warns of ‘just retribution’
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its acronym SVR, claimed Tuesday, without providing evidence, that Ukraine is preparing to begin launching drone attacks against Russia from the territory of the Baltic countries and warned of retaliation.
It claimed 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. The prime minister resigned 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.”
Russia and Ukraine keep hammering targets with long-range drones
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian refinery and an oil pumping station over the past 48 hours, Ukraine’s General Staff said Tuesday.
Russian news agencies quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that its air defenses intercepted 315 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimea and the Azov Sea overnight.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 209 drones overnight, killing five civilians and wounding 24 others, Ukrainian officials said.
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Geir Moulson in Berlin, Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
