Estonia will provide Ukraine this week with drones worth tens of millions of euros and will join the Northern-Baltic PURL assistance package.
This was announced before the NATO defense ministers’ meeting by Estonia’s Defense Minister, Hanno Pevkur.
Pevkur expressed regret over a slight reduction in military aid to Ukraine.
“That’s why we decided that this week we will also deliver many drones worth tens of millions, in addition to what we have already provided,” the minister announced.
He also reported that his country has decided to join the Baltic-Northern PURL assistance package. Four aid packages have already been agreed upon under this initiative (each valued at around half a billion dollars), and the next package will come from the Northern and Baltic countries.
“So this is good news. Our contribution will be 12 million USD,” Pevkur said, adding that the Northern-Baltic package will be completed very soon, possibly even today.
He also noted that it is the Ukrainian Defense Minister’s birthday today and expressed confidence that partners would prepare “nice gifts.”
The Estonian minister said that a few weeks ago he visited Ukraine, touring some facilities producing interceptor drones, and noted that some companies in Estonia already manufacture interceptor drones. Next week will be a “long testing day” to see how effective they are, he said.
According to Pevkur, much remains to be done, as Ukrainian experience shows that they still cannot “detect and intercept” about 20–25% of drones. In addition, the Russians are already using Geran-3 drones with jet engines.
“So the industry has to work very intensively here, because I believe all countries have funding for this,” Pevkur emphasized.
He added that the U.S. share of contributions to Ukraine has significantly decreased this year, “so it’s not only us — all allies must help Ukraine win this war.”
The Estonian politician also recalled Russia’s September violation of Estonian airspace and Tallinn’s initiation of consultations under Article 4 of the NATO Charter.
“As we see, Russia acted deliberately… they did not follow the orders of our air traffic controllers or fighters… If someone is in NATO airspace for twelve minutes, that shows it’s a long time, and we needed to respond,” Pevkur stressed, thanking Italian colleagues who participated in the interception.
He emphasized the importance of the air patrol mission, especially in the Baltic countries, and called for reviewing together with the Alliance’s eastern flank what more can be done to strengthen it.
Pevkur also pointed out that a small part of Estonian territory is accessed from the Russian side, and Russia uses its territory for “various activities,” including provocations near the border. Estonia is now building a new road to prevent such incidents and to ensure no intrusions into its territory.
