Intense electronic warfare, GPS jamming and interference: Announcement about the drone shot down by the Romanian F-16 in Estonia. “I told the Ukrainians all the time”

Officials in the Baltic states say Moscow is behind the latest incident, but also call on Kiev to be more careful with the routes of its attack drones.

A Romanian NATO F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday, in what appears to be the latest case of Russian electronic jamming diverting long-range Ukrainian UAVs into Alliance territory, The Guardian writes.

A local resident told the Estonian public television station ERR that he saw two fighter jets – part of the NATO force that provides military patrols in the airspace of the Baltic states – flying in the area, only to then produce a powerful explosion that brought down the drone. He said the drone crashed about 30 meters from the nearest residential building.

After analyzing the drone's trajectory, “we decided we had to shoot it down,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said.

The position of Ukraine

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said: “We apologize to Estonia and all our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents.”

“We cooperated and continue to cooperate closely with our specialized institutions to get to the bottom of the problem in each case and to find ways to prevent them,” he said.

The spokesman blamed Moscow for the incident, saying Ukrainian forces targeted legitimate targets in Russia and had never tried to use Baltic airspace for their drones.

The Baltic countries accuse Russia of lying

This is the latest in a series of incidents in which Ukrainian drones appear to have been diverted off course by electronic jamming by Russian forces. The Latvian government fell last week amid a crisis over its response to a similar incident in which two drones exploded at an oil storage facility.

Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, said on Tuesday that Ukraine planned to launch drone strikes against Russia from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and warned that “just revenge” would follow.

Officials in the three Baltic states deny any plans to use their airspace to launch drones or have UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) fly over their territory.

“Russia is lying when it says that Latvia allows any country to use Latvian airspace and territory to launch attacks against Russia or any other country,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs wrote in a message posted on the X social network.

“I told the Ukrainians all the time”

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stated that the only reason Ukrainian drones appeared over Estonian territory was because Russian electronic warfare devices diverted them from their trajectory.

“Estonia has not allowed its airspace to be used for attacks against Russia. Such incidents are related to Russian jamming activities,” he said.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in Tallinn over the weekend, Tsahkna took a similar tone. “These are the consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. It is a desperate move to divide the West and put us under pressure to tell the Ukrainians to stop because Ukraine is hitting their lifelines,” the Estonian foreign minister said.

Estonia supported Ukraine's right to attack targets in Russia, he said, adding that the two capitals were in constant contact and that Tallinn had asked Kiev to be more careful with its drone routes given Russian jamming.

After Tuesday's downing, Pevkur reiterated that Ukraine needs to be careful with its attack drones.

“We have told the Ukrainians all along that if they attack Russian positions or targets, these trajectories must be as far away from NATO territory as possible,” he told The Associated Press.

The drone, shot down by a Romanian F-16

NATO confirmed earlier in the day that a Romanian F-16 fighter jet, part of NATO's air policing mission in the Baltic countries and deployed in Lithuania, shot down a drone over Estonia.

The drone entered Estonian airspace around noon local time (or 09:00 GMT), coming from Russia and entering the southeastern part of the country, the Estonian military said in a statement.

The UAV was shot down by a Romanian NATO F-16 fighter jet on a training flight at 12:14 local time (09:14 GMT) with a single missile.

“The incident took place in conditions of intense electronic warfare, including GPS jamming and interference (jamming, nr) from the Russian side,” the Estonian army also stated, according to Reuters and Agerpres agencies.

The drone had been monitored before entering Estonia, the Estonian military added, and the decision to shoot it down was made to “reduce the impact on the civilian population and infrastructure”.

NATO has said that an investigation is underway into this incident. The alliance said it “is ready and able to respond to any potential air threats”.

Neighboring Latvia also issued an air threat alert after a drone entered its airspace on Tuesday, advising residents in the area near the Russian border to stay indoors and NATO's “Baltic Air Policing” planes were mobilized to the area.

It was not clear from the start whether the drone that entered Latvia was the same as the one that entered Estonia, or whether it was two different drones.

Ukraine has recently intensified long-range drone attacks on Russia, including in the Baltic Sea area. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have entered the airspace of NATO member states Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all of which share a border with Russia.

Who is the Romanian pilot who shot down the drone

The Minister of Defense from our country, Radu Miruță, also revealed the name of the Romanian pilot on board the F-16 plane that shot down the Estonian drone.

“Being on an air police mission in Lithuania, on behalf of Romania, aboard a Romanian F16 fighter jet, Captain Commander Pavelescu Costel-Alexandru managed to frame, engage and ground a drone that entered Estonian airspace,” Minister Miruță said on Tuesday.

He added that he met Commander Pavelescu at Air Base 86 in Fetești and that he “noticed since then his determination as a professional to demonstrate that from aboard an F16 he will be able to shoot down such a target. Today he demonstrated it.”

Miruță specified that the success of the Romanian commander “is extremely appreciated at the level of the allies” and that he proposed awarding the emissary for peace emblem, first class, to the pilot of the fighter plane.