A group of 12 Russian combat aircraft has been spotted on Wednesday close to Latvia’s airspace, Latvian National Armed Forces said in a statement.
“Patrol aircraft have identified on Wednesday four Mikoyan MiG-31, four Sukhoi Su-24, three Antonov An-26 and one Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft of the Russian Air Force over the international waters of the Baltic Sea near Latvia’s external sea border,” the statement says.
The Latvian Armed Forces noted that Russian aircraft and ships had approached Latvia’s borders more than 60 times this year. According to the data provided earlier by the Latvian Defense Ministry, Russian military aircraft and warships approached the country’s borders more than 250 times last year.
Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov met with the Latvian Defense Minister in late January to discuss the issue. Veshnyakov said that “all flights of the Russian Air Force and the movements of warships were made in strict accordance with international legal norms, and maneuvers of the Russian Armed Forces were conducted transparently within the framework of international agreements and arrangements.” It was stressed that no threat to the security of the neighboring countries emanated from Russia.
One Comment
Tom Welsh
Wow. Panic. Help. Save us!!! Russian aircraft over international waters “close to Latvia’s airspace”. How appalling.
Or you could take a quick glance at a map of the Baltic Sea, which would reveal that any ships or aircraft that want to remain out of territorial waters or air space (of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the South, and Sweden and Finland to the North) must thread a rather narrow course down the middle of the sea. All Russian ships and aircraft that travel from the St Petersburg area westward across the Baltic must inevitably approach the airspace of both Latvia and Sweden. This is like complaining that a Latvian ship passing through the English Channel comes “close to British airspace”. And French airspace, too.
How about the US aircraft that fly close to many nations’ air spaces (including that of Russia) even though the USA itself is many thousands of miles away? Or don’t they count?