• Russia conducted an unannounced live-fire exercise on Lake Peipus near the border with Estonia, marking the first time such an exercise has taken place there.
• The exercise, which involved shooting at sea drones, was held on July 9, one day after the NATO summit in Ankara, and was not communicated to Estonian border guards.
• Estonian authorities knew the identity of the unit that arranged the exercise but did not disclose further details, with Interior Minister Igor Taro condemning the incident as a violation of border conduct rules.

Russia has conducted an unannounced live-fire exercise on Lake Peipus just kilometres from the border with Estonia for the first time, the Baltic country's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur has said.

"This is definitely not typical. Russia has to date not conducted exercises with weapons on Lake Peipus. To that extent, this is something new," Pevkur told Estonian media outlets on Monday about the exercise, which took place in the middle of the lake last week.

He said Estonian border guards had not been informed about the exercise but monitored the situation.

According to the reports, the exercise was held on July 9, one day after the NATO summit in Ankara ended. It could be heard on the Estonian side.

The Russians are also reported to have sent up a reconnaissance balloon over the Narva River that flows from Lake Peipus to the Baltic Sea. The lake is one of Europe's largest and marks part of the border between Estonia and Russia.

During the exercise, the Russians practised shooting at sea drones, according to Pevkur. "They fired at a moving target in the water," he said.

Pevkur said the Estonian authorities knew the identity of the unit that arranged the exercise but said he did not intend to reveal it or how close it came to the border. The Estonian border guard also did not provide further details.

Interior Minister Igor Taro condemned the incident. "We have very strict rules of conduct for the border region on what is allowed and what is prohibited. You do not turn up at the border in military uniform and conduct some or other exercise," he said.

The incident showed that Russian was testing borders in the literal and the figurative sense, he said, while adding that there was no cause for concern.