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Most previous violations were brief and often dismissed by Moscow as navigational errors. In contrast, this breach was deliberate: the jets flew without filed flight plans, had transponders switched off, and ignored multiple communication attempts by NATO fighters, specifically Italian F-35s assigned to NATO’s Baltic air policing mission. Estonia reacted by labeling this act a "brazen violation" of sovereignty and promptly invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which mandates emergency consultations among ally nations.