German fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian reconnaissance aircraft on Tuesday, German media has reported.
Two Eurofighter jets took off from the Rostock-Laage air base in Germany after the Russian aircraft was spotted flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, according to Deutsche Welle. The Il-20 plane was spotted with its transponders turned off and without having a flight plan submitted. NATO’s air command gave the order to intercept the aircraft.
It remains unclear exactly where the encounter took place or how long the aircraft remained in the restricted airspace.
This was the tenth alert flight of German Air Force aircraft over the Baltic Sea this year, according to the dpa news agency, as the Baltic region grows tense as Russian reconnaissance aircrafts have repeatedly flown out of Kaliningrad to gather information about NATO military activity on the Baltic coast, particularly in Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
These flights are considered to be part of “Russian military intimidation and intelligence gathering tactics,” according to the German newspaper Bild. The reconnaissance aircrafts often fly without using transponders or flight plans and do not establish contact with regional air traffic control – a pattern that NATO officials have described as high-risk behaviour, according to Kyiv Independent.
It comes a week after Polish and allied aircraft were activated after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine, near the border with Poland. Aircrafts scrambled to maintain the safety of Polish airspace, according to the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces.
By 2.15am GMT, most of western Ukraine had been under air raid alerts for nearly three hours following Ukrainian Air Force warnings of Russian missile and drone attacks.
A Russian drone struck a field in the Polish village of Osiny, just over 100km from the Ukrainian border and around 90km from Belarus, officials confirmed on Wednesday, which the nation’s defence minister described as a provocation.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski told Reuters that the findings so far and some experts have suggested a Russian version of the Shahed drone developed by Iran was involved in the latest incident.
Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who also serves as defence minister, said the incident bore similarities to cases in which Russian drones flew into Lithuania and Romania, and could be linked to efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing with it in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are underway,” he told journalists.
Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a southern Polish village in 2022, killing two people.
