This was the latest event after a series of incursions by Russian military aircraft into NATO airspace in September, leading to heightened tensions between NATO and Russia.
German and Swedish fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian reconnaissance plane that entered neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea on Sunday morning, officials from Germany and Sweden said.
German officials said NATO ordered Germany’s „quick reaction alert force“ to investigate an unidentified aircraft flying without a plan or radio contact.
„The aircraft turned out to be a Russian IL-20M reconnaissance plane. After visually identifying it, the Bundeswehr [German military] handed over the escort to our Swedish NATO partners @SwedenNato and returned to Rostock-Laage“, Germany’s delegation to NATO said in a post on X.
Sweden’s air force said its fighters were „identifying and monitoring a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace.
