Estonian police monitor drone until it falls in Lake Peipus on Russia's side
The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) monitored a drone flying over Lake Peipus early Sunday morning until it crashed six kilometers from the Estonian border in Russian territory.
On Saturday and early Sunday morning, drone activity was high in Russia's Leningrad region, as Ukraine carried out drone strikes against various targets in Russia. Drones attacked facilities in the city of St. Petersburg as well as the oil terminal at the Ust-Luga port, about 50 kilometers from the Estonian border.
According to PPA Maj. Ivan Posledov, the border guard detected a drone flying over Lake Peipus twice early Sunday morning.
"First, at 5:20 a.m., a radar observer in Varnja detected an object flying over the Russian side of Lake Peipus. It was likely a drone and we monitored its flight until it disappeared from the radar over Russia. An hour later, a radar observer from the Mustvee station also detected a drone flying on the Russian side. We tracked its path until 6:25 a.m., when it crashed into the water on Russian territory, about six kilometers from the Estonian-Russian border. After crashing, the drone broke into pieces, most likely due to an explosion," Posledov said.
"The drones never headed toward Estonia and it remains unclear whether it was the same drone that disappeared earlier from the radar or two different drones," Posledov added.
The Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) did not comment on the incident on Sunday.
Emergency landing
On Sunday morning, a passenger plane traveling from Egypt to St Peterburg was also forced to make an emergency landing at Tallinn Airport due to the drone attacks.
"The aircraft was rerouted to land in Tallinn, as it could not land at Pulkovo Airport due to a temporary closure," said Margot Holts, head of communications and marketing at Tallinn Airport.
Passengers and crew were not permitted to leave the plane, she added.
Security expert Rainer Saks (Parempoolsed) said the landing was carried out on humanitarian grounds. "Apparently, it had nowhere else to land," he told Delfi. "There is no issue here; this is not a matter for discussion."
This article was updated on August 25 to add details about the emergency landing.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Marcus Turovski, Helen Wright
