German, Swedish fighter jets track Russian reconnaissance plane flying over Baltic Sea

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BERLIN (AP) — Air force fighter jets from Germany and Sweden were scrambled Sunday to intercept and track a Russian surveillance plane that was flying unidentified over the Baltic Sea, military officials said.

Two Swedish Gripen jets and two German Eurofighter jets deployed in international airspace to monitor and photograph the Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft. It had been flying without providing a flight path or radio contact that could signal its presence, Swedish and German air force officials said.

The monitoring, which ended without incident, came as NATO and European Union member countries have been on heightened alert for Russian military and reconnaissance activities in and around their airspace.

On Friday, three Russian fighter aircraft entered Estonia’s airspace without permission and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said. That happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over.

"Today, (Swedish) JAS 39 Gripens and (German) Eurofighters were scrambled over the South Baltic Sea, identifying and monitoring a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace," the Swedish air force said on its X account.

The German Luftwaffe said its jets had initially followed the Russian plane before handing off monitoring to the fighters from NATO ally Sweden, and then returning to Rostock-Laage airfield in northern Germany.