World
Russia says intercepted French, German planes over Baltic, airspace violation stopped
Russia’s ministry of defense said on Monday it scrambled a Su-27 fighter jet to intercept a German and a French patrol aircraft over the Baltic Sea and prevented them from “violating” Russian airspace.
The ministry said the two aircraft detected moving towards the country’s borders were a P-3C Orion German patrol plane and a French navy anti-submarine patrol aircraft Atlantique 2.
The ministry said in its statement: “After turning the foreign military planes away from the Russian Federation state border, the Russian fighter [jet] returned safely to its airbase.”
“The flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with international rules on the use of airspace over neutral waters.”
The ministry’s statement stressed that the Russian jet conducted the interception operation “without crossing air routes or making dangerous rapprochement with an aircraft of a foreign state.”
The Baltic Sea has witnessed in recent months several interceptions by Russian, US and NATO aircraft. Tensions over airspace and aerial conduct heightened between Moscow and the West last March when a US military surveillance drone (MQ-9 Reaper) crashed into the Black Sea, after an encounter with Russian Su-27 fighter jets in international airspace near territory Russia claims to have annexed from Ukraine.
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