Explosive‑laden drone discovered in Reuge, Estonia

A local resident in the Reuge municipality of southeastern Estonia found a broken drone with a damaged wing and nearly five kilograms of high‑explosive material in a field. Security police identified the device as a Ukrainian‑produced Shahed‑type loitering munition that entered Estonian airspace on 3 June during a Ukrainian counter‑strike against Russian targets. Radar tracking by the Air Force detected the drone, and allied air‑defence systems briefly intercepted it before it fell, later being recovered by rescue‑department bomb‑disposal experts who cordoned off the site and used robots for the operation.

Authorities opened a criminal investigation under article 112 of the criminal code. Public disclosure of the incident was delayed because extensive military exercises were underway at the time. The find highlights a pattern of Shahed drones crossing Baltic airspace, some of which have been shot down by NATO allies in Latvia and Estonia.

The incident underscores ongoing security concerns in the region as Ukraine’s offensive actions against Russian infrastructure lead to spill‑over of hostile aerial devices into neighboring countries.