Estonia will transfer drones worth tens of millions of euros to Ukraine this week. This was stated by Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur on October 15 before the start of the NATO defense ministers' meeting, Ukrinform reports.
He noted a certain decrease in military aid to Ukraine and emphasized that this is why Estonia is transferring new UAVs. The share of US contributions to Ukraine has decreased significantly this year,"so not only us - all allies must help Ukraine win this war," Pevkur emphasized.
"Therefore, we have decided that this week we will also hand over many drones worth tens of millions in addition to what we have already done," the minister noted.
According to him, the country has also decided to join the North-Baltic aid package PURL. It is the North and Baltic countries that will form the next package for Ukraine. Before that, there were already four of them, each of about half a billion euros.
"So this is good news. Our contribution will be 12 million US dollars," Pevkur said.
He added that the North-Baltic package will be completed very soon, perhaps even today. He also said that in Estonia some companies are already producing interceptor drones. And next week, "a long day of testing is planned, when we will see how effective they are."
Pevkur emphasized that Ukrainian air defense still cannot "see and catch" about 20-25% of drones, and the Russians are already using "Geran 3" drones with jet engines.
He also recalled the violation of Estonian airspace by the Russians and the official initiation by Tallinn of consultations regarding Article 4 of the NATO Charter.
"As we see, Russia acted deliberately, ... that they did not follow the orders of our air traffic controllers, as well as the fighters... If someone is in NATO airspace for twelve minutes, it shows that this is a really long time, and we needed to react," Pevkur emphasized.
The Minister noted that air patrols are very important, particularly in the Baltic states. He also called for a look together with the Alliance's eastern flank at what else can be done to strengthen them.
Earlier it was reported that the members of the European Parliament voted for a "unified response" by the EU to the attacks by Russian planes and drones. It was also reported that the EU wants to create a "drone wall" using Ukrainian technology. It is planned to spend billions of euros for this.