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NATO jets intercept Russian aircraft over Baltic Sea

21 April 2021 19:11 (UTC +04:00)

NATO on Wednesday scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, APA reports citing Anadolu Agency.

As NATO radars tracked unidentified aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday morning, NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany, launched allied fighter aircraft in the Baltic region to intercept and identify the approaching aircraft, NATO’s Allied Air Command said in a statement.

Fighter jets from bases in Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland took off to track and intercept aircraft that did not provide flight plans and some of them could not be identified by transponder signals.

“Two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack bombers, escorted by Su-27 and Su-35 fighter aircraft were flying over the Baltic Sea from mainland Russia, where they operated with a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne warning and control plane that was also escorted by fighters,” the statement said.

The bombers stayed in international airspace above the Baltic Sea and returned to mainland Russia after roughly three hours, it added.