Estonia clarifies airspace status following Baltic drone alerts

Estonian Defense Minister Martin Herem clarified that unmanned aerial vehicles entered national airspace from both the northeast and southeast during a series of overnight security incidents across the Baltic region. Herem stated that Tallinn had not authorized the use of its airspace for Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian maritime infrastructure at Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, which occurred between midnight and 6 a.m. on Wednesday.

While most aerial objects remained within Russian airspace near the Estonian border, earlier alerts in neighboring Lithuania and Latvia prompted temporary shelter advisories for residents, including those in Latvia's Ludza district. NATO fighter aircraft and regional air defense units monitored the incursions, which coincided with reports of a Ukrainian drone striking a Russian naval vessel in international waters within the Gulf of Finland.

Sources: ERR, Cyprus Mail, Sweden Herald, Bloomberg, Svenska Dagbladet