A German EUROFIGHTER Typhoon jet occurs during an exhibition flight demonstration in Le Bourget, north of Paris, June 18. The Eurofighters were used to intercept the Russian plane.
Julien de Rosa / AFP via Getty Images
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Julien de Rosa / AFP via Getty Images
German and Swedish fighter planes were scrambled to intercept a Russian recognition plane which entered the neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea on Sunday morning, officials of Germany and Sweden said.
German officials said NATO had ordered Germany’s “rapid reaction warning force” to investigate an unidentified flying plane without plan or radio contact.
“The plane turned out to be a Russian recognition plane IL-20M. After having identified it visually, the Bundeswehr [German military] Get the escort to our Swedish NATO partners @Swenato and returned to Rostock-Laage, “the German delegation told NATO in an article on X.
The Air Force of Sweden said that his fighters “identified and monitored a Russian recognition plane IL-20 in international airspace”.
It was the last event after a series of Russian military aircraft in NATO airspace in September, causing increased tensions between NATO and Russia.
On Friday, Estonia said that three Russian mig-31 fighter planes entered its airspace without authorization and stayed there for a total of 12 minutes.
Prime Minister Estonian Kristen Michal invoked article 4 of NATO, which allows NATO members to keep consultations with the alliance when a state considers that it is threatened.
Estonia also summoned Moscow’s accusation of business in demonstration, but the Russian Defense Ministry denied the allegation that it had violated Estonian airspace.
On Friday, President Trump was asked about the incident by journalists.
“Well, I don’t like it. I don’t like it when it happens. Could be a big problem,” said Trump.
Article 4 of NATO was also launched a few days earlier by Poland after more than a dozen Russian drones arrived in Polish airspace on September 10, which led Poland to shoot down some of them.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the “closest that we have been to open the conflicts since the Second World War”.
In another incident, on September 14, Romania reported that a Russian drone had violated its airspace. Russia said without evidence that the incident was a provocation by Ukraine.
Hanno Pevkur, the Minister of Defense of Estonia, said that in an interview with the public broadcaster of Estonia, Err that NATO had demonstrated that it can react and effectively use the force, if necessary, against the violations of Russia.
“This is exactly what Russia wants – divert our attention from Ukraine and focus on our own backyard. This was one of the strategic objectives of Russia: so that the West is not in mind of its own business while Russia deals with Ukraine. This is a key objective behind this type of provocations,” said Pevkur.
