Breaking: NATO jet downs suspected stray Ukrainian drone over Estonia in first such case
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Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
For the first time, a NATO fighter jet shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia on May 19, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Delfi news outlet.
The drone, downed by a Romanian jet taking part in the Baltic air policing mission, was likely of Ukrainian origin and aimed at targets in Russia, Pevkur said.
In response, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of intentionally redirecting Ukrainian drones into NATO territory.
"We apologize to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.
This comes as another case of the suspected Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crashing on the territory of the Baltic countries during aerial strikes against northwestern Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing over 300 Ukrainian drones overnight on May 19, including over the Yaroslavl, Moscow, and Novgorod oblasts.
Latvia and Estonia both issued drone alerts for parts of their territory around noon.
