British fighter jets intercepted two Russian aircraft within 48 hours close to NATO airspace along the alliance’s eastern flank, the U.K. government said on Sunday.
Why It Matters
Six British Typhoon jets and nearly 200 personnel arrived in the eastern Polish airbase at Malbork in late March to take up a rotation of the alliance’s enhanced air policing mission alongside NATO’s newest member, Sweden.
NATO air policing covers a handful of regions, including the Baltic states and the eastern flank of Europe more generally. NATO introduced its enhanced air policing after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The initiative is designed to deter Russia from attacking the alliance’s members.
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What To Know
The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday two of its Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon jets intercepted an “unknown aircraft” leaving the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, passing close to NATO airspace on Thursday.
The jets were scrambled from the Malbork air base, close to Kaliningrad, the U.K. government said.
Two days earlier, two British Typhoons left the same airbase to intercept a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M intelligence aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the ministry said. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Kaliningrad looks out onto the Baltic Sea, sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The Baltic Sea — sometimes dubbed a “NATO lake” — is largely surrounded by NATO members now that Finland and Sweden have joined the trans-Atlantic alliance.
NATO is scrutinizing Russian activity around the Baltic Sea, including by beefing up its naval presence to shield critical infrastructure after at least 11 undersea cables were damaged since fall 2023.
Russia sees the Baltic Sea region as a “significant priority,” Lieutenant General Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart, the now-former head of NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast based in northwest Poland, told Newsweek in November.
The intercepts are the first time the British jets were scrambled under the rotation in Poland, dubbed Operation Chessman, the U.K. said. The deployment is the first time Sweden is contributing towards NATO air policing abroad.
Sweden officially joined NATO little over a year ago. Sweden and Finland ended decades of non-alignment shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Russia heavily criticized the move.
The British RAF carried out air policing in Romania in April 2024, followed by a stint in Iceland in August last year as part of an air policing mission for the High North, an area of increasing tension between NATO, Russia and China. British jets also handle NATO air policing in the U.K.
Portuguese F-16 fighter jets arrived in Estonia late last month to take over from a detachment of Dutch F-35s, while Italian jets have taken up air policing in Romania from Spain’s air force.
What People Are Saying
British Armed Forces minister, Luke Polland, said in a statement: “With Russian aggression growing and security threats on the rise, we are stepping up to reassure our Allies.”
Update 4/20/2025 at 9:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
