VILNIUS, April 1 (Reuters) – Drones detected in Estonia appear to have come from Ukraine and been intended for Russia, the Baltic country’s armed forces said.
The violations come as Kyiv has intensified attacks on Russia’s oil export infrastructure over the past month, including massive strikes on the Primorsk and Ust-Luga ports on the Baltic Sea.
Estonia had earlier said it detected drones inside and outside its airspace overnight on Monday into Tuesday, with broadcaster ERR reporting that drone debris was found.
An army spokesperson late on Tuesday said several drones that had strayed into Estonia were thought to have been launched from Ukraine to strike military targets in Russia near Estonia’s borders.
The spokesperson said NATO’s Baltic air policing mission had responded, without saying if any drones had crashed on Estonian territory.
“Such incidents are very likely to recur in the near future and are a direct consequence of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine”, they said.
Separately, Finnish police on Wednesday said a Ukrainian drone detected in Finland on Tuesday had been carrying explosives.
Latvian police also said on Wednesday they had launched an investigation after debris from a drone was found in the country earlier in the day.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told a press conference on Tuesday his country was working with the Baltics and Finland to prevent future incidents.
“We are immediately sharing all necessary information, and I can reassure you that we never aimed drones at these countries,” Sybiha said, adding that the incursions were the result of “conscious and deliberate actions by Russia”.
On Sunday, a Ukrainian drone crashed in Finland, the first time the Ukraine war spilled onto Finnish soil. Last week, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania reported drones of Ukrainian origin on their territory in connection with attacks on the Russian oil terminal.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Yuliia Dysa, Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv, Anne Kauranen in Helsinki, editing by Louise Rasmussen, Alex Richardson and Keith Weir)
