Estonian border guards said on Thursday that their Russian counterparts had removed 24 out of 50 navigation buoys recently placed on the Estonian side of Narva river.

According to Estonian authorities, Russia has been contesting the buoys' positions since Moscow'sfull-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The buoys are strategically placed on the border river to keep ships from entering foreign waters.

Motives still unclear

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas described the removal of the buoys as a "border incident."

She said the Baltic state had contacted Russia for information. 

"This is a border incident, the precise circumstances of which we are clarifying," she told reporters. 

She added that "Russia uses tools related to the border to create fear and anxiety, with which to sow insecurity in our societies. We see a broader pattern of this."

EU's High Representative Josep Borrell in a statement on Friday has called the removal of the buoys "unacceptable" and "part of a broader pattern of provocative behaviour and hybrid actions by Russia." 

Earlier this week, Russia's Defense Ministry briefly published a proposal to revise Russia's maritime border in the eastern Baltic Sea, but later deleted it from an official portal after creating concern among NATO members, including Estonia.

It was not immediately clear if the removal of buoys was related to any Russian Baltic Sea border plan.

Ecological changes lead to constant redrawn borders

The Narva river runs from a lake between Russia and Estonia and ends up in the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea.

Natural changes to the riverbed make it necessary to retrace shipping routes annually, Estonia said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Russia's Baltic Sea borders should be in accordance with international law, and that the Defence Ministry's work to clarify the border was of a technical nature.

sb/km/sri (Reuters, AFP)