Estonia will close its airspace to Russian planes, the country’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas announced on Saturday.

"Estonia joins Poland's initiative and will ban all Russian airlines from using our airspace," he said, as cited by the ERR news outlet.

"I invite our Baltic colleagues to do the same to cut Russia off from European airspace," the minister pointed out, adding: "Europe must be united and resolute in its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians.