RUSSIAN pilots ignored signals from Italian jets responding from Nato’s Baltic Air Policing Mission when they violated Estonian airspace, a senior Estonian military official said on Saturday.

The 12-minute incursion was the latest test of the military bloc’s ability to respond to Russian aircraft after around 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on September 10.

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Saturday denied its aircraft flew into Estonia’s airspace, after Tallinn reported three fighter jets crossed into its territory on Friday without permission.

Estonian officials dismissed the denial, saying the violation was confirmed by radar and visual contact and suggested it could be a tactic to draw Western resources away from Ukraine.

The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace between 9.58am and 10.10am local time Friday in the area of Vaindloo, a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said. A ministry statement said it was the fourth airspace violation by Russia this year.

It still “needs to be confirmed,” if the border violation was deliberate or not, Colonel Ants Kiviselg, the commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Centre, told reporters.

Regardless, he said, the Russian jets “must have known that they are in [Estonian] airspace.”

The Russian pilots didn’t pose a “military threat,” Mr Kiviselg said.

But although they acknowledged communication from the Italian pilots flying F-35 fighter jets, they apparently ignored it and “didn’t actually follow the signs,” which is partly why they were in Estonian airspace for so long, he added.

“Why they didn’t do it, that’s a question for the Russian pilots,” Mr Kiviselg said.