VILNIUS, March 6. /TASS/. NATO fighter jets, deployed on a rotation basis at the Lithuanian Zokniai airbase, escorted Russian warplanes 13 times in February, Lithuania’s Defense Ministry said on Monday.

Four F-16 fighters of the Polish Air Force and four Rafale fighters of the French Air Force are currently deployed at Zokniai.

The air escort procedure is routine. In November, there were 10 such cases, in December - 15, and in January - 3. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly stated that Russian military aircraft fly to and from the Kaliningrad Region over international waters in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace.

The sky over the Baltic countries, which do not have their own aircraft, is controlled by their NATO allies. Since 2004, NATO countries’ fighters have been based at the Zokniai base on the rotation basis. In 2014, another part of the mission was placed at the Amari air base in Estonia.