NATO 'intercepts' Russian military planes flying over the Baltic Sea

Many of the Russian flights that NATO monitors with its Baltic air policing mission, which has been in place since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the alliance in 2004, are to and from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

NATO intercepted Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets flying over the Baltic Sea on Monday on the alliance's eastern flank away from the attention of the Middle East.

The French Rafale fighter jets were deployed from a Lithuanian air base where they are stationed as part of a decade-long NATO air patrol effort.

Fighters armed with air-to-air missiles joined aircraft from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania.

Everyone took to the sky to inspect and observe the Russian flight, the French detachment said.

The Russian mission included two Tu-22M3 supersonic aircraft, as well as about 10 fighter jets, SU-30 and SU-35, which alternately accompanied the largest strategic bombers, according to the statement.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the flight of the long-range bombers was planned and took place in airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The flight lasted more than four hours, the ministry said in a Telegram message on Monday.

"At certain stages of the route, the long-range bombers were accompanied by fighters from foreign states," the ministry said.

“Long-range aviation crews regularly perform flights over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, as well as the Baltic and Black Seas. All flights of Russian Space Forces aircraft are carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace.”

The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. It frequently reports flights by its strategic bombers over the Baltic Sea, including in January when NATO jets also flew over to meet them, and at least four times last year.

NATO's Allied Air Command also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The military alliance regularly sends fighter jets into the air to intercept Russian fighter jets approaching or flying near NATO airspace.

NATO says intercepted Russian planes often fail to use their transponders and fail to communicate with air traffic controllers or file a flight plan. NATO planes are scrambled to identify them.

Many of the Russian flights that NATO monitors with its mission Its Baltic air policing, which has been in place since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the alliance in 2004, is to and from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Even before the war in Ukraine, NATO intercepted Russian aircraft about 300 times a year, mainly over the waters around northern Europe.

Lithuania's defense ministry said NATO fighter jets scrambled four times between April 13 and 19 to intercept Russian planes that violated flight rules that included turning off flight transponders and flying without a flight plan.

The Geopost