Dutch fighter-jets were ordered to take off to identify the Russian transport aircraft Ilyushin last Wednesday. They escorted the Russian aircraft to mainland Russia. Ilyushin had been flying above neutral waters close to the borders of the Baltic states without a coordinated flight plan and with response equipment switched off, said the ministry.
On Wednesday, a report was also received about two ships of the Russian Baltic Navy – Passat small missile ship and Steregushiy corvette – observed in Lithuania’s exclusive economic zone some 37 nautical miles southeast of Lithuanian coasts. Lithuanian naval vessel P12 Dzūkas was dispatched to the economic zone to monitor the ships. No navigation interruptions were reported.
On Sunday, two Russian fighter-jets S-27 were identified as flying without an agreed plan and response equipment above neutral waters in the Baltic Sea close to Estonia. Russia’s transport warplane IL-76 was also observed flying above neutral waters in the direction of Russia’s Kaliningrad region in accordance to an agreed plan and in contact with flight operators. The Russian military aircrafts were identified and escorted by German fighter-jets on duty at the Amari aviation base in Estonia.
From now on, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence intends to publish such data every Monday. Reports about such incidents are sometimes published separately by governments of countries serving in the NATO air-policing missions in the Baltic states, however, there have been inaccurate reports on their behalf about the flights violating the air-space of the Baltic states.
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