NATO has intercepted Russian bombers and fighter jets over the Baltic Sea. Many of the flights monitored by NATO’s Baltic air policing mission, which has been in place since Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined the alliance in 2004, are to and from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
In a display of air power on the alliance’s eastern flank, French Rafale fighters were deployed from a Lithuanian air base. Multiple aircraft were tasked with monitoring a Russian formation.
The French detachment reported that the Russian mission included about 10 fighters as well as two supersonic Tu-22M3s.