NATO panic as brazen Vladimir Putin makes aggressive move on EU country | World | News
A Russian fighter jet infringed NATO airspace in Estonia – drawing condemnation from the former Soviet country’s foreign minister. The incursion, which lasted around one minute, was “not acceptable in any way” and was “very serious”, said Margus Tsahkna.
The Sukhoi Su-35 flew without a flight plan, without transponders, and without radio contact. The breach came at the same time as Exercise Hedgehog, Estonia’s largest annual military drill involving over 16,000 NATO troops. Hitting back, Portuguese F-16s, deployed under NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, launched a reconnaissance flight.
A formal complaint has been raised with the Russian embassy in Tallinn, the Foreign Ministry said. The breach was the first recorded since 2023.
The incursion comes amid fury that Russian president Vladimir Putin refused to attend peace talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul. An offer had been extended to Putin to meet Mr Zelensky after the Ukrainian war leader met Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
The Kremlin’s refusal to co-operate with the talks was branded “theatrical” by Mr Zelensky.
“I have not yet received official confirmation regarding the Russian level of representation. But from what we can observe, it appears theatrical. We will decide on our next steps after the conversation with President Erdogan,” he wrote on X.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers that US president Donald Trump is “open to virtually any mechanism that gets us to a just, enduring and lasting peace”.
“He wants to end wars and that’s the hope with Russia and Ukraine,” said Mr Rubio. “We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days in that regard, but we want to see progress made.”
