Russia sets fire to EU borders: how NATO countries reacted to the incident with the theft of buoys

Several NATO countries have already commented on the strange incident with Russian border guards in Estonian waters.

It will be recalled that on the night of May 23, Russian border guards removed 24 buoys installed in Estonian waters to mark the fairway.

Every spring, Estonia and Russia install buoys marking the fairway in the Narva River. The course of the river changes over time, so the fairway markings are revised every year.

This year, Russia said it disagreed with the placement of about half of the 250 buoys. The first 50 buoys were installed on May 13. On the night of Thursday, the Estonian border guards discovered that the Russian border guards had started removing these buoys, and overnight they removed 24 of them, some of which belonged to the disputed ones.

This behavior of Russian border guards alarmed European diplomats, especially against the background of the recent news about the “change of borders” by Russia. We will remind you that Russia has decided to unilaterally change the maritime borders with Lithuania and Finland. However, the Russian authorities later removed the corresponding document from the network.

Thus, after the incident with border guards and buoys, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat.

“We clearly stated to the Chargé d’affaires of Russia that such steps are provocative and unacceptable, and demanded an explanation regarding the removal of the border buoys and their immediate return,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsakhna.

Finland also reacted to the situation on the water border with Estonia.

“Finland is closely monitoring the situation after Russia dismantled light buoys on the Narva River. Russia’s actions in the border river are another unfriendly act aimed at creating confusion,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen wrote on the X social network.

Latvia also condemned Russia for removing the buoys.

“Russia’s removal of Estonian buoys on the Narva River is unacceptable. This border incident is part of Russia’s hybrid activity in Europe. We will oppose them together with our allies,” Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silinia commented.

They did not miss the incident in Germany either. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Annalena Berbock, wrote the following on the X social network:

“Russia is setting fire to the borders of the European Union. We stand side by side with our friends in Estonia, Finland and Lithuania and do not accept such aggressive behavior. On the contrary: we stand in solidarity with our allies in the Baltic States and the Baltic Sea.”