Russia Conducts Live-Fire Exercises on Lake Peipus Without Notifying Estonia

Russia has conducted live-fire exercises on Lake Peipus near Estonia’s eastern border for the first time without notifying Estonian authorities in advance.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told the Postimees newspaper that this was the first time such exercises had been held on the lake.

According to Pevkur, the Russian military could have been practicing countering naval drones.

Lake Peipus, the fifth-largest lake in Europe, lies on Estonia’s eastern border with Russia. The border runs through the middle of the lake.

“This is definitely not a common practice. Russia has never conducted live-fire exercises on Lake Peipus before. In that sense, this is something new. They were firing at a moving target on the water,” he said.

The Minister noted that Estonia knows which agency or unit organized the exercises but did not disclose this information to the media.

Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro said that any exercises near the border are provocative in nature and that there are clear rules of conduct for such areas.

“In general, the military does not just appear near the border and conduct exercises for no particular reason,” he said.

At the same time, the defense minister said that he did not agree with the idea that this was another Russian provocation.
“Rather, this is a case of disorder within the Russian power structures,” Pevkur said.

Despite the lack of prior notification of the exercises, Estonian border guards knew about them, said Tauno Tammik, acting head of the Border Bureau of Estonia’s Southern Prefecture. According to him, “there is no reason to be concerned about various assumptions that appear in foreign media regarding our region, but it is necessary to closely monitor what is happening there.”

In 2025, an FSB border guard boat flying the flag of the Wagner PMC was spotted on the Narva River, which also separates Estonia and Russia.