Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said on Friday that the integration of coastal missile systems of Estonia and Finland will allow to close the Gulf of Finland to Russian warships if necessary, the EFE agency reported. Agerpres.

Russian warships at a naval parade in St. Petersburg in the waters of the Gulf of FinlandPhoto: Oleksandr Demyanchuk / TASS / Profimedia

In an interview with the Finnish daily Iltalehti, the Estonian minister stressed the importance of coordinating these systems after Finland joins NATO, which he agreed this week with his Finnish counterpart Antti Kaikkonen.

“The range of Estonian and Finnish coastal missiles exceeds the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means that we can coordinate our anti-missile defense and transfer all information to each other,” the Estonian minister explained.

This would block the access of Russian warships to this bay, on the coast of which the Russian city of St. Petersburg is also located, the maximum width of which between the Finnish and Estonian shores is 120 kilometers.

“The Baltic Sea will become an internal sea of ​​NATO after Sweden and Finland join NATO. Compared to the way it is now, the situation will change,” the Minister of Defense of Estonia notes.

According to the newspaper he interviewed, Estonia has Israeli Blue Spear missiles that can hit a sea target at a distance of up to 290 kilometers, while Finland’s coastal missiles have a range of 100 kilometers.

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