NATO Scrambles Jet, Shoots Down Ukrainian Drone Over Estonia, In War First

It's being widely reported as a major "first" of the war: a NATO fighter has jet shot down what is believed to have been a stray Ukrainian drone over a Baltic country.

The incident happened over southern Estonia on Tuesday, resulting in a regular NATO patrolling unit being forces to urgently scramble a pair of F-16 fighter jets in response. After the shoot-down, Ukraine owned up to it by issuing public apology.

Kiev called it an "unintended incident" - but then also suggested Russia caused it by diverting the drone's path through electronic warfare. 

"We apologize to Estonia and all our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents," a Ukrainian government statement said. "We have been and remain in close cooperation through our specialized institutions to get to the heart of the matter in each case and seek ways to prevent them, including through the direct engagement of our expert groups."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then deflected, calling attention to Russian actions: "Moscow does this on purpose, together with intensified propaganda," it said.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur had earlier described that the drone's trajectory left the military with no choice: "we decided that we needed to take it down," he had earlier announced.

"Most probably, today we can say that it was a drone that was, let’s say, meant to hit Russian targets," he conceded, appearing to accept Ukraine's explanation. According to further details:

A Romanian F-16 Nato 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 drones into the alliance’s territory.

A local resident told the Estonian public broadcaster, ERR, that he had seen two fighter jets – part of a Nato force policing the skies over the Baltic states – flying in the area before a loud bang that brought the drone down. He said the drone had crashed about 30 metres from the nearest residential building.

Moscow, for its part, has been warning Baltic countries against allowing Ukraine to launch drones from their territories, or to allow their airspace to be used for such hostile attacks.

For example, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has freshly called out Latvia: "The primitive Russophobia of Latvia’s current rulers proved stronger than their capacity for critical thinking or their sense of self-preservation," it said in a Tuesday statement. 

However, Ukraine as well as Baltic officials have slammed the Kremlin statements as part of "yet another disinformation campaign."

The whole incident is unusual given that typically NATO jets scramble in response to Russian drones. But here we have an ally vs. ally drone shootdown, and happening in airspace which is deemed NATO's domain.