NATO fighter jets escorted Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea twenty times last week
Last week, NATO fighter jets performing patrol missions in the Baltic States scrambled twenty times to identify and escort Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea. The press secretary of the Joint Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Captain Thomas Pakalniskis, told the Baltic News Service that Russian military drills taking place near Vilnius account for the great number of Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
“Russia conducts intensive drills in the Baltic region and performs a number of flights with transponders turned off,” Pakalniskis said. He added that NATO fighter jets escorted mainly Russian fighter jets and transport and reconnaissance aircraft. NATO patrol missions in the Baltic States are launched from bases located in Estonia and Lithuania.