Putin’s air force flew a four-hour mission over international waters (Image: Getty)
NATO warplanes were scrambled to monitor Russian strategic bombers flying over the Baltic Sea. Vladimir Putin’s air force flew a four-hour mission over international waters amid deep tension.
The nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 aircraft were escorted by Russian Su-35 fighters. The Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda admitted that NATO fighters had monitored the bombers. “At certain stages of the route, the aircraft were escorted by fighter jets from foreign states,” said the report. “All flights are conducted in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace.” An F-35 used by some NATO airforces appeared visible in the Russian footage.
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Putin’s air force conducted a four-hour flight over international waters amid heightened tensions (Image: Getty)
The show of strength from the Kremlin came as Moscow has made allegations that Finland and Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have allowed their airspace to be used by Ukrainian drones attacking key Russian oil ports.
The Western states have strongly denied these claims, as has Kyiv.
Despite this, Russian officials including Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, have warned the West that Moscow could respond.
The secretary of the Russian security council Sergei Shoigu warned of Russia’s “inherent right” to self defence, implying Moscow could launch military strikes against Finland, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.
There are suspicions Putin could test NATO’s Article 5 collective defence umbrella resolve with a limited land grab in the Baltic – perhaps an island.
Sergei Shoigu warned of Russia’s ‘inherent right’ to self defence (Image: Getty)
Sweden’s Chief of Defence, Michael Claesson, has warned Russia is scheming to occupy an island belonging to a Western state in the Baltic Sea in a test for NATO.
Among the larger islands that could be threatened are Sweden’s Gotland, Denmark’s Bornholm or Estonia’s Hiiumaa and Saaremaa.
Shoigu alleged: “Recently, there have been increasingly frequent cases of attacks by Ukrainian drones on Russia via Finland and the Baltic states.
“As a result, civilians suffer and significant damage is caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either western air defences were “highly ineffective….. or the states in question are deliberately providing their airspace, that is, acting as direct accomplices in aggression against Russia”.
He insisted: “In the latter case, in accordance with international law, Article 51 of the UN Charter on the inherent right of states to self-defence in the event of an armed assault comes into force.”
Specifying Ukrainian strikes crippling the oil ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk, another close Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev – a former FSB security service chief – accused NATO states of being “complicit in these crimes”.
Hardline MP Andrei Kolesnik said Shoigu was issuing a “final” warning, with Putin’s authority, and the Baltic states should not make the “mistake” of acting with “impunity” against Russia.
