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.
