SOUTHERN ESTONIA — A Romanian F-16 jet deployed with NATO air policing forces in the Baltics shot down what authorities believe was a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia on Tuesday. The aircraft engaged the drone after it crossed into NATO airspace.

"Given the trajectory of the drone, we decided that we need to take it down," said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur. He said the device appeared to have been directed at Russia rather than at Estonian territory. "Most probably, today we can say that it was (a) drone which was, let's say, meant to hit some Russian targets," Pevkur said.

In recent months, Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory. Western officials blame these incidents on likely Russian electronic jamming of the weapons. Ukraine has steadily ramped up its drone raids, focusing on energy facilities and arms factories deep inside Russia, and its domestic drone technology and scale of production have improved.

Russian authorities said that one of the largest Ukrainian drone strikes on the country killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others. The war began more than four years ago when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Experts from Ukraine and Estonia were working on measures to prevent such occurrences in the future, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said. "Ukraine apologizes to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents," Tykhyi said in a post on X.

The strikes have caused tensions within the Baltic states and between the Baltic states and Russia. Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service said that Ukraine is preparing to begin launching drone attacks against Russia from the territory of the Baltic countries, and that Ukrainian military personnel had deployed to Latvia. "NATO membership would not protect a country from 'just retribution'," the service said. "Modern surveillance systems allow precise determination of the coordinates of the drone launch site," the service added.

Latvia's government collapsed last week, with the prime minister resigning after the defense minister quit over incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine, and the defense minister's party withdrew its support.