Russia said its fighter jets did not violate Estonian airspace

The Russian Ministry of Defense denied that their MiG-31 fighter jets flew into Estonian airspace on the evening of September 19.

This is stated in a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

They say that the planes allegedly flew from Russian Karelia to an airfield in the Kaliningrad region, "without violating the borders of other states."

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, within the framework of the "scheduled flight", the fighters did not deviate from the agreed route and did not fly to Estonia.

The Russian agency emphasizes that the aircraftʼs flight path ran over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea at a distance of more than three kilometers from the island of Vaindlo.

• Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission on September 19 and remained there for a total of 12 minutes. As a result, the Estonian government initiated Article 4 consultations with NATO.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the incursion of Russian fighter jets into the airspace of a NATO country is not an accident, but a systemic campaign by the Russian Federation against the West, which requires a "systemic response and strong actions.”

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