NATO shows video of Russian fighters intercepted over Baltic Sea
Two French Mirage 2000-5 aircraft intercepted Russian Su-30 fighters and an An-72 transport plane over the Baltic Sea.
Incidents occurred in international airspace to the north of Poland on 29 February.
"Check out how it looks, when 2 French Mirage 2000-5 intercept 2 Russian SU-30-M aircraft over the Baltic Sea yesterday.
Directly after French fighters were re-tasked to a new mission, where they also intercepted a Russian AN-72 flying in international airspace North of Poland," NATO Air Force Command published videos and photos of the interception were on Twitter (X).
Check out how it looks, when 2 🇫🇷 Mirage 2000-5 intercept 2 🇷🇺 SU-30-M aircraft over the Baltic Sea yesterday
— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) March 1, 2024
Directly after 🇫🇷 fighters were re-tasked to a new mission, where they also intercepted a 🇷🇺 AN-72 flying in international airspace North of 🇵🇱#SecuringTheSkies #NATO pic.twitter.com/wszcsdoc4U
French military aircraft are stationed in some NATO member states as part of a mission known as NATO Air Policing, which aims to protect the Alliance’s airspace. These missions increased following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then, several aircraft interceptions have been recorded, none of which resulted in a serious incident. In March 2023, a Russian plane collided with an American drone in the Black Sea.
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecorgne stated last week that Russian forces threatened to shoot down French planes patrolling international airspace over the Black Sea last month.