A Russian helicopter crossed into territory belonging to NATO member Estonia for two minutes before departing on Saturday, reports say.
The helicopter briefly crossed over Estonian territory for the first time on Saturday, according to Sky News. The Baltic nation also accused Russia of performing daily simulations of a missile strike on Estonia.
“This is the picture of the threat. How we see the Russian threat … [is] it has never been as serious as it is now,” Kusti Salm, a civil servant at Estonia’s defense ministry, said Tuesday.
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Russia is stepping up aggressive behavior toward NATO members just days before the trans-Atlantic partnership is set to convene at a NATO Summit in Madrid. Estonia emphasized the need for a permanent command structure capable of deterring Russian aggression ahead of the meeting.
“There is a need to be better prepared for war. To be in a better state of readiness,” Estonian Defense Minister Madis Roll said in an interview with ERR News.
“We want all the structures and establishments to be prepared before a war. The numbers [of troops] are one thing, the structure is another. We want all the commands to be present, the divisional command structure so that they can work as a force,” he continued.
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Last week, Lithuania, whose railroads supply the Kaliningrad territory of Russia, began enforcing EU sanctions on the Russian-held Baltic land. Lithuania announced that shipments of certain products would be curtailed in line with the sanctions, which Russia denounced as “hostile.”
“Russia will, of course, respond to hostile actions of this kind. The necessary measures … will be introduced shortly. They will have serious negative consequences for residents of Lithuania,” Russian Security Council Chief Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday.
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State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated the United States’s commitment to its NATO allies.
“Lithuania is a member of the NATO alliance. We stand by the commitments that we have made to the NATO alliance. That includes, of course, a commitment to Article 5. That is the bedrock of the NATO alliance,” Price said.
