VILNIUS, June 5. /TASS/. NATO fighter jets deployed on a rotation basis at Lithuania’s Zokniai airbase escorted Russian warplanes eight times during May, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said on Monday.

According to the ministry, fighter jets flew two escorts twice each during the three full weeks in May and then once apiece on May 29 and 30. There were no sorties from May 1 through 7.

The Lithuanian airbase currently hosts four Portuguese and four Romanian F-16 fighter jets. In late March, they replaced a contingent of four Polish F-16 fighter jets and four French Rafale fighter jets.

The air escort procedure is routine. Thus, there were 13 such flights in February, 11 in March, and 21 in April. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly said that Russian warplanes perform flights to and from the Kaliningrad Region over neutral waters in strict compliance with international rules for the use of airspace.

Control of the skies over the Baltic states, which lack their own air forces, is overseen by their NATO allies. NATO aircraft have been stationed at Lithuania’s Zokniai airbase and Estonia’s Amari airbase since 2014.