Overview
- NATO and partner fighters scrambled Monday to track two Russian Tu-22M3 bombers over international waters in the Baltic Sea, with Sweden confirming no breach of its airspace.
- Swedish Gripens first identified the formation near Gotland and, after a north‑to‑south transit from the Gulf of Finland, handed the mission to Danish F‑35s near Bornholm during a flight Russia said lasted about four hours.
- Images from the intercept showed at least one Tu‑22M3 carrying a Kh‑32 cruise missile, a long‑range anti‑ship weapon that underscores the sortie’s maritime‑strike role.
- French Rafales launched from Šiauliai in Lithuania joined fighters from Finland, Poland, Denmark, Romania and Sweden in a coordinated air‑policing response that NATO uses to identify aircraft flying near its airspace.
- Lithuania reported multiple scrambles from April 13–19 for Russian aircraft that flew without transponders or flight plans, while Russian officials in recent days accused Finland and the Baltic states of enabling Ukrainian drone routes and issued warnings that have sharpened regional tensions.