This was the Russian Defense Ministry's response on Saturday morning to the incident involving the violation of a NATO member's airspace.
The fighter jets reportedly flew from northwestern Russia to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. “The flight was conducted in strict accordance with international airspace rules, without violating the borders of other states, which was confirmed by independent checks,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a post on Telegram.
The Estonian government announced on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets had entered the country's airspace without permission and remained over its territory for 12 minutes. The local army confirmed that the military aircraft had entered the airspace around the island of Vaindloo, about 100 kilometers from Tallinn, in the morning. The aircraft had allegedly not submitted any flight plans, their transponders were not switched on, and they did not communicate with air traffic control.
Local Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna described the incident as “unprecedentedly brazen” and pointed out that this was already the fourth violation of Estonian airspace by Russia this year.
A statement from the Russian ministry said that the route taken by the fighter jets from the northwestern Russian region of Karelsko was “over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea at a distance of more than three kilometers from the island of Vaindloo,” which lies off the Estonian coast.
“During the flight, the Russian aircraft did not deviate from the agreed flight route and did not violate Estonian airspace,” the ministry argued.
Estonia has decided to request consultations under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) because Russian fighter jets violated its airspace, Prime Minister Kristen Michal wrote on social media on Friday.
NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said the North Atlantic Council would meet early next week to discuss the incident in more detail.
(reuters, luc)