Tarien noted it is far from certain that Russia can take control of Ukrainian drones after jamming them or redirect them into Estonian airspace.

"We have to understand that these are individual drones that Russia manages to disrupt in this way. The majority of Ukrainian drones still fly toward their planned targets," Tarien said.

He speculated that the number of Ukrainian drones misled by Russia is less than 10 percent of all units Ukraine sends against targets in Russia.

"It's a constant technological race between both sides. We don't really know exactly how Ukrainian drones navigate or what they use. Most likely they are semi-autonomous, following terrain features — tracking the landscape, their inertial movement, and occasionally correcting their position via GPS. Probably some of them are intercepted at those moments when they update their position and are then misled. That's my theory — I can't confirm that it happens exactly this way," Tarien said.

According to Tarien, it cannot be stated with complete certainty that Russia is deliberately directing drones toward the airspace of the Baltic states.

"Does Russia try to cause disruption whenever it can? Absolutely. But we also see that the number of misdirected drones is relatively small. Whether Russia can precisely steer even those few it disrupts, I can't say. I tend to think they are not taken over or directly controlled by Russia, but rather disrupted and then wander on their own," Tarien commented.

Tarien said it is possible to use counter-jamming against such stray drones, but if Estonia were to do so, it would also affect civilian air traffic. "In peacetime, activating this kind of electronic interference is not really a responsible action," he said, adding that it might not even be very effective.

"In the case of such isolated drones, I don't see that as an effective peacetime measure Estonia could use," he added.

Tarien assessed that Estonia has so far responded appropriately to misdirected drones.

"I think what is currently being done is a reasonable and proportionate solution to the threat as it exists now. The threat consists of isolated stray drones. Our current peacetime approach is adequate," Tarien said.

"In peacetime, when the airspace is open to civilian aviation, and we open fire based on a radar track, it could be someone's hobby aircraft that we shoot down. In peacetime skies, you simply cannot have ground-based machine gun units opening fire immediately. Procedures require us to send NATO air policing aircraft to visually identify the target; otherwise, we risk shooting down a friendly but off-course aircraft," Tarien explained.

"When we are in peacetime and our airspace is open to civilian aviation, this inevitably makes our response slower. The threat posed by a few stray drones is not great enough to justify closing the airspace or deploying machine-gun units. We are currently at a completely proportionate state of readiness," Tarien added.

The British newspaper The Telegraph reported on Monday that Moscow is using a GPS jamming system in Kaliningrad to redirect Ukrainian drones attacking Russia into NATO airspace. According to experts cited in the article, this tactic could constitute an act of aggression against NATO.

Since March, Ukrainian drones redirected by Russian electronic interference have crashed in Estonia, Latvia, and Finland. Last week, a Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Estonian airspace.

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