VILNIUS (Reuters) – Russian border guards removed navigation buoys from the Estonian side of a river separating the two countries, the Baltic nation said on Thursday, adding it would seek an explanation as well as the return of the equipment.
Around 24 of the 50 buoys recently placed on the Narva River to mark navigation routes were removed in the early hours of Thursday, Estonian police and border guard said in a statement.
Natural changes in the riverbed make it necessary to retrace shipping routes annually, the official said, adding that the location of buoys between Russia and Estonia has been disputed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Russian Defense Ministry earlier this week briefly published a proposal to revise Russia’s maritime border in the eastern Baltic Sea, but later deleted it from an official portal after creating concern among NATO members, including Estonia.
It was not immediately clear whether the removal of the buoys was related to any Russian border plans in the Baltic Sea.
“We will approach this case in a sober and balanced way, interacting with allies whenever necessary,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said at a weekly government press conference on Thursday, public broadcaster ERR reported.
“We see a broader pattern of Russian actions that attempt to sow anxiety,” he added.
The Narva River flows from a lake between Russia and Estonia and flows into the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Russia’s borders in the Baltic Sea should be in accordance with international law and that the Defense Ministry’s work to clarify the border was technical nature.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Philippa Fletcher)
