Estonia, a NATO member, has summoned the Russian ambassador to protest the “extremely serious” violation of its airspace by a Russian border guard helicopter, the foreign ministry said. The Estonian Foreign Ministry and the Estonian army said on Tuesday that a Russian border guard MI-8 helicopter flew over a point in the southeast of the country without permission on June 18. The incident is the second time in less than two weeks that Estonia has reprimanded Moscow’s envoy to Tallinn. “Estonia considers this an extremely serious and unfortunate incident which undoubtedly causes additional tensions and is completely unacceptable,” the ministry said in a statement. “Russia must stop threatening its neighbors and understand that the price of Russia’s attack on Ukraine is indeed high,” he said. The statement also reiterated calls for Russian troops to leave Ukraine and expressed solidarity with the Baltic state of Lithuania, which Moscow says will be punished for banning the transit of certain goods – to the European Union sanctions list. pocket of Kaliningrad. A top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in Lithuania that he would feel pain over the EU-approved ban on transit of goods from its territory to and from Kaliningrad. The Estonian army said in a statement that a Russian MI-8 helicopter had entered the country’s airspace in southeastern Estonia in the Koidula region – not far from the Russian city of Pskov – without permission on Saturday night. The helicopter was in Estonian airspace for almost two minutes, the Estonian army said, adding that the helicopter had no flight plan, deactivated its transponder and failed to maintain radio communication with Estonian air navigation services. The alleged invasion was the second violation of Estonian airspace this year. Last year, Russian aircraft – military and civilian – violated Estonian airspace five times, the military said. Estonia also complained to the Moscow envoy on June 10 about Putin’s praise for an 18th-century Russian ruler who occupied what is now Estonia. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia belonged to the Russian Empire before gaining independence after World War I. In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the three countries that regained their independence by 1991.
