Swedish Air Force: Russian warplanes violated Sweden's airspace
A surveillance aircraft and two destroyers of the Russian Air Force violated Swedish airspace over the Baltic coast entering it for a short period, the Swedish Air Force reported.
In the report published on January 24th, Swedish Air Force stated that the incident occurred on January 19th. An Il-20 surveillance aircraft and two Su-27 fighters flew near the city of Karlshamn, in south Sweden. The Russian aircraft entered Swedish airspace without permission, which the Swedish military reported to its government.
In response, Moscow denied this statement. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that “all flights occur with strict adherence to international law regulating the use of airspace without violating other countries’ borders.
The incident occurred during the reinforcement of Russian naval and air force presence in the Baltic Sea region. Recently, there has been more than one report of violations of Russian military aircraft of the airspace of other governments.
Earlier, the morning of January 15th, two F-16 Belgian fighter planes intercepted two Russian strategic Tu-160 bombers during their flight over the North Sea in the northwest Netherlands.