The Luftwaffe tweeted, “Reconnaissance flights intercepted. German and British Eurofighters were alerted to identify three military aircraft. The two SU-27 Flankers and a IL-20 from Russia were flying again without transponder signals in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.”
Earlier this month, the UK assumed NATO’s Baltic policing mission from Germany. Since Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia lack their own jets, Russian military aircrafts often travel between mainland Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Poland and Lithuania (both of which are NATO members and EU members). On Tuesday, the Royal Norwegian Air Force identified a group of Russian jets in international airspace over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.