French aircraft tracks Russian vessels over Baltic Sea - Politico
Photo: French Navy aircraft tracking Russian vessels (Getty Images)
A French Navy aircraft conducted surveillance over the Baltic Sea, tracking Russian vessels, Politico reports.
Over the Baltic Sea, the crew of the French aircraft Atlantique Atl2 spotted a Russian military ship.
One of the aircraft's operators, monitoring numerous screens, noted that the ship was definitely not part of NATO forces.
According to the agency, it was a Russian military ship — a Neustrashimy-class frigate returning from the Mediterranean Sea.
"Our mission is to fly over the Baltic Sea to show that we’re there, to reassure neighboring countries, but also to find out what’s going on and gather intelligence; The Baltic Sea is not a Russian preserve, it’s a NATO sea," one of the crew operators stated.
It is known that the Baltic holds strategic significance for both NATO and Russia. The agency noted that similar encounters are increasingly occurring over the Baltic Sea, where NATO patrols have intensified since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Cyrille Bret, a research fellow at the Notre Europe Institute, emphasized that this area has become "a critical zone of direct contact with Russia" in the air, at sea, underwater, and in cyberspace.
Russia’s presence in the Baltic
Earlier this year, Russian forces "accidentally" sank a ship in the Baltic Sea with a missile.
Due to the erroneous strike, a fire broke out on the vessel, and the Russian trawler Kapitan Lobanov sank.
Additionally, it is known that since the beginning of 2024, the frequency of NATO military aviation intercepting Russian aircraft approaching allied airspace over the Baltic Sea has increased by 20–25%.
