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Russia rejects claims Su-24s breached airspace of other states during Baltic flight

Russia’s Defense Ministry stressed that the flight had been conducted "in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace, without violating other countries’ borders"
Su-24 fighters Yuri Smityuk/TASS
Su-24 fighters
© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Two Russian Su-24 fighters performed a scheduled training flight over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, without violating the borders of other states, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"On July 8, 2021, two Su-24 planes from the Baltic Fleet’s naval aviation performed a scheduled training flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," the ministry said.

The jets conducted their flight "in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace, without violating other countries’ borders," Russia’s Defense Ministry stressed.

Captain Andrius Dilda, a spokesman for the Lithuanian Army, told TASS earlier on Thursday that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda had to interrupt a press conference at a NATO airbase in Lithuania due to an air raid siren.

The airspace control stations registered two aircraft in the international airspace over the Baltic Sea near the border with Lithuania with their onboard transponders switched off, the spokesperson claimed, adding that the Russian jets did not maintain radio communications with the ground-based traffic control center and NATO fighters were scrambled to identify the targets.