3 Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace in ‘brazen’ incursion

Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said, just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over.

Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhna said that Russia violated Estonian airspace four times this year “but today’s incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.”

Russian officials did not immediately comment.

Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022. Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory.

The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as U.S.-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing.

Italian F-35 fighter jets respond to Russian incursion

The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, which is a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement.

The aircraft did not have flight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic services.

Italian Air Force F-35 fighter jets, currently deployed as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, responded to the incident, according to the statement.

“Russia’s increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure,” Tsakhna, the foreign minister, said.

The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.

British spy chief says ‘no evidence’ Putin wants peace

Earlier Friday, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency said there is “absolutely no evidence” that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 as it is more commonly known, said Putin was “stringing us along.”

“He seeks to impose his imperial will by all means at his disposal. But he cannot succeed,” Moore said. “Bluntly, Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. He thought he was going to win an easy victory. But he – and many others – underestimated the Ukrainians.”

The war has continued unabated in the three years since Russia invaded its neighbor. Ukraine has accepted proposals for a ceasefire and a summit meeting, but Moscow has demurred.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday during a state visit to the United Kingdom that Putin " has really let me down " in peace efforts.

Putin is ‘mortgaging the future’ of Russia

Moore was speaking at the British consulate in Istanbul after five years as head of MI6. He leaves the post at the end of September. The agency will then get its first female chief.

During his tenure, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a war that has seen tens of thousands killed and still rages, principally in eastern Ukraine.

Moore said the invasion had strengthened Ukrainian national identity and accelerated its westward trajectory, as well as pushing Sweden and Finland to join NATO.

“Putin has sought to convince the world that Russian victory is inevitable. But he lies. He lies to the world. He lies to his people. Perhaps he even lies to himself,” Moore told a news conference.

Richard Moore, the Chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, answers questions in London, England, Nov. 30, 2021. (Matt Dunham/AP)

Referring to the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov, who conditioned dogs to respond to a bell, Moore said a phone call from the Russian president was “the equivalent of Pavlov’s tinkling bell inside the Kremlin, eliciting learned behavior to tell Putin whatever it is the system thinks he want to hear.”

He said that Putin was “mortgaging his country’s future for his own personal legacy and a distorted version of history” and the war was “accelerating this decline.”

Moore, who previously served as the U.K.’s ambassador to Ankara, the Turkish capital, added that “greater powers than Russia have failed to subjugate weaker powers than Ukraine.”

Analysts say Putin believes he can outlast the political commitment of Ukraine’s Western partners and win a protracted war of attrition by wearing down Ukraine’s smaller army with sheer weight of numbers.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is racing to expand its defense cooperation with other countries and secure billions of dollars of investment in its domestic weapons industry.

MI6 unveils dark web portal

The spy chief was speaking as MI6 unveiled a dark web portal to allow potential intelligence providers to contact the service. Dubbed " Silent Courier," the secure messaging platform aims to recruit new spies for the U.K., including in Russia.

“To those men and women in Russia who have truths to share and the courage to share them, I invite you to contact MI6,” Moore said.

Not just Russians but “anyone, anywhere in the world” would be able to use the portal to offer sensitive information on terrorism or “hostile intelligence activity,” he said.

爱沙尼亚外交部表示，周五三架俄罗斯战斗机未经许可进入爱沙尼亚领空并停留了 12 分钟后，爱沙尼亚召见了一名俄罗斯外交官进行抗议。就在一周多前，北约战机在波兰上空击落了俄罗斯无人机，加剧了人们对乌克兰战争可能蔓延的担忧。

外交部长马尔古斯·察赫纳表示，俄罗斯今年四次侵犯爱沙尼亚领空，“但今天这起涉及三架战斗机进入我们领空的入侵事件，是前所未有的明目张胆。”

俄罗斯官员尚未对此作出回应。

俄罗斯侵犯波兰领空是自2022年2月俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰战争爆发以来，北约成员国遭遇的最严重的跨境入侵事件。其他北约国家也报告了类似的入侵事件和无人机坠毁事件。

随着美国主导的制止乌克兰战争的努力一无所获，事态发展越来越令欧洲各国政府感到不安。

意大利F-35战斗机对俄罗斯入侵做出回应

爱沙尼亚军方在另一份声明中表示，俄罗斯米格-31战斗机进入了位于波罗的海芬兰湾瓦因德洛岛附近的爱沙尼亚领空。

声明称，该飞机没有飞行计划，应答器也已关闭，并且该飞机没有与爱沙尼亚空中交通服务部门进行双向无线电通信。

声明称，目前作为北约波罗的海空中警戒任务的一部分部署的意大利空军F-35战斗机对这起事件做出了响应。

“俄罗斯日益广泛的试探边界行为和日益增长的侵略性必须迅速加大政治和经济压力来应对，”外交部长察赫纳说。

外交部声明称，俄罗斯临时代办被召见，并收到了一份抗议照会。

英国情报局长称“没有证据”表明普京想要和平

周五早些时候，英国对外情报机构负责人表示，“绝对没有任何证据”表明俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京想要就乌克兰和平问题进行谈判。

英国秘密情报局（MI6）局长理查德·摩尔表示，普京“一直在敷衍我们”。

“他企图用尽一切手段强加他的帝国意志。但他不可能成功，”摩尔说。“坦白地说，普京野心太大，力不从心。他以为自己能轻松取胜。但他——以及许多其他人——低估了乌克兰人。”

自俄罗斯入侵邻国以来，战争已持续三年之久。乌克兰已接受停火和举行峰会的提议，但莫斯科方面却拒绝配合。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周四在对英国进行国事访问期间表示，普京在和平努力中“真的让我失望了”。

普京正在“透支”俄罗斯的未来。

摩尔在担任军情六处处长五年后，于英国驻伊斯坦布尔领事馆发表讲话。他将于九月底卸任。届时，军情六处将迎来首位女性处长。

在他任职期间，俄罗斯于 2022 年 2 月对乌克兰发动了全面入侵，这场战争已造成数万人死亡，并且仍在持续，主要发生在乌克兰东部。

摩尔表示，这次入侵加强了乌克兰的民族认同感，加速了其西进的进程，同时也促使瑞典和芬兰加入北约。

“普京一直试图让世界相信俄罗斯的胜利是不可避免的。但他撒谎。他欺骗世界，欺骗他的人民，或许他甚至欺骗自己，”摩尔在新闻发布会上说道。

2021年11月30日，英国军情六处（MI6）处长理查德·摩尔在英国伦敦回答记者提问。（马特·邓纳姆/美联社）

摩尔以俄罗斯科学家伊万·巴甫洛夫为例，他曾训练狗对铃铛做出反应。摩尔说，俄罗斯总统的电话“相当于克里姆林宫里的巴甫洛夫铃铛，引发了人们的学习行为，让他们告诉普京体制认为他想听的任何事情。”

他说，普京“为了个人遗产和歪曲的历史，出卖了国家的未来”，而战争“加速了这种衰落”。

曾任英国驻土耳其首都安卡拉大使的摩尔补充说，“比俄罗斯更强大的国家都未能征服比乌克兰更弱小的国家。”

分析人士称，普京相信他能够凭借绝对的兵力优势，耗尽乌克兰西方伙伴的政治决心，赢得一场旷日持久的消耗战，最终战胜乌克兰规模较小的军队。

与此同时，乌克兰正加紧扩大与其他国家的防务合作，并确保其国内武器工业获得数十亿美元的投资。

英国军情六处推出暗网门户

英国军情六处（MI6）推出一个暗网门户网站，允许潜在的情报提供者与该机构联系，而这位情报主管正是在此时发表上述讲话的。这个名为“无声信使”（Silent Courier）的安全通讯平台旨在为英国招募新的间谍，包括在俄罗斯的间谍。

“对于那些身在俄罗斯，有真理想要分享，并且有勇气分享真理的男男女女，我邀请你们与军情六处联系，”摩尔说道。

他说，不仅是俄罗斯人，而且“世界各地的任何人”都可以使用该门户网站提供有关恐怖主义或“敌对情报活动”的敏感信息。