A Ukrainian drone entering Estonia from Russian airspace has struck the chimney of a power plant in eastern Estonia.
The drone was one of several that entered Estonian airspace in the early hours of this morning during a Ukrainian attack on a nearby Russian port.
As Estonian state broadcaster ERR reported, the unmanned drone hit the Auvere power station near the town of Narva on the Russian border at 3:43 am, causing superficial damage to the chimney but no injuries.
The Estonian Prosecutor’s Office said the drone was not intentionally directed towards the power plant or Estonia in general.
State Prosecutor General Astrid Asi said: “According to current information, the drone was not directed at Estonia. Initial actions are currently being taken, the investigation will clarify the more specific circumstances.”
Overnight, a drone flew from Russian airspace into Estonia and crashed into a power plant chimney in Auvere, public broadcaster ERR reports.
The incident, in which no one was injured, occurred at 3:43 a.m. local time, the Security Police reported. pic.twitter.com/8fkLZ6syUN
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) March 25, 2026
The drone that hit the power plant was one of several unmanned aerial vehicles that entered Estonian airspace – prompting the closure of the country’s north eastern airspace and the scrambling of several NATO jets.
As Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told reporters at a news conference at noon today, the drone intrusion triggered a nationwide security attack.
“This alert should have been sent to the Ida-Viru region; instead, it was sent across all of Estonia, which caused additional confusion. But it is better that the alert was sent than that it not working at all,” the PM said.
Estonia’s Internal Security Service (ISS) is investigating the incident.
ISS director Margo Palloson told ERR: “These are the effects of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression. We can assume that we will see more such incidents.”
The drones were part of a large-scale attack by the Ukrainian army on the Russian port of Ust-Luga – situated just 30km north of Narva.
The port allegedly serves Russia’s shadow fleet vessels, which the country uses to export crude oil and petroleum products in violation of sanctions imposed on it by western countries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The attack – which according to Estonian estimates included around 100 drones – caused fires at the Ust-Luga oil export terminal.
The General Staff of Ukraine has confirmed a strike on the Novatek-Ust-Luga facility in Russia
Preliminary reports indicate that the attack hit the tank farm and loading/unloading racks for oil and petroleum products.
Ukrainian forces also targeted enemy communication nodes in… https://t.co/yA68soIno6 pic.twitter.com/io58sWqOqC
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 25, 2026
The Auvere power plant is one of several thermal power plants around Narva that burn oil shale to generate a large part of Estonia’s electricity. It was constructed by French engineering group Alstom and took up operations in 2015.
