BRUSSELS: NATO air forces were scrambled over 300 times in reply to Russian military aircraft in the current year, the military alliance said on Friday.
According to NATO, the most aerial encounters between Russian jets and NATO were safe and professional. It added that breaches of NATO airspace by Russian jets remained very rare and generally of short period. It maintained that most intercepts took place over the Baltic Sea.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO significantly reinforced its eastern flank air defences with additional fighter jets, surveillance flights as well as ground-based air defences.
Russian Jets Caused NATO Air Forces to Scramble Around 300 Times in 2023
In a statement, NATO spokesperson Dylan White said that NATO jets are on duty and ready to scramble in case of suspicious flights near the airspace of NATO Allies.
Earlier on Friday, Russia had launched a massive air strike over Ukraine, killing as many as 30 people and wounding over a hundred across the country in the fiercest attack since the first days of the conflict nearly two years ago, western media reported on Friday. Ukrainian officials said that a maternity hospital, Schools, shopping arcades and flats were among the compounds hit in the barrage.
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