A Norwegian military plane was intercepted by the Russian army, according to Moscow. Russian troops claimed to have sent a fighter as a Norwegian military aircraft approached Russia’s borders over the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
“As the Russian fighter approached, the foreign military aircraft turned around,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the Norwegian aircraft had been identified as a Boeing P-8A “Poseidon “, a maritime patrol aircraft.
“No violation of the border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry added, assuring that the interception took place in accordance with international rules “without cutting air paths” or “dangerous rapprochement”. Interception is an operation aimed at escorting an aircraft deemed too close to an airspace or having entered it.
Incidents involving Russian planes and aircraft from NATO countries, including Norway, have multiplied in recent years, even before the start of the conflict in Ukraine. They often took place over the Baltic Sea, but also in the Black Sea and elsewhere.
In April, the Norwegian army said it tracked and identified, as part of an Atlantic Alliance mission, a Russian patrol comprising two strategic bombers and three fighters in international airspace in the Barents Sea. .
In a separate statement on Monday, the Russian military said several of its strategic bombers and fighters had made “planned flights” over international waters in the Baltic, Barents, Norwegian Seas, as well as in those of eastern Siberia, Beaufort and the Chukchi.
