MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. A NATO Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II reconnaissance and target acquisition aircraft is navigating in the area of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, a source in the EU air traffic control services told TASS.
"About an hour and a half ago, a NATO reconnaissance aircraft took off from an airfield in Constanta, Romania, where it has been basing in recent months, and is currently performing a flight in the area of the Kaliningrad Region at an altitude of about 10 km," the source said. He noted that the aircraft first flew along the Russian region’s border with Poland, after which navigated in the area of the Kaliningrad Region’s eastern and northern borders.
The aircraft is using the Polish and Lithuanian airspace. The source also recalled that the Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II aircraft last time appeared in the area of the Kaliningrad Region on July 7-8, accompanied at some sections of the route by a British Air Force Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic reconnaissance aircraft, which took off from RAF Waddington specifically for this purpose. They navigated through the airspace of Lithuania and Poland, as well as areas over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea.
The source emphasized that air traffic controllers have nearly a dozen times recorded such flights by the Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II aircraft in the area of the Kaliningrad Region over the past few months. In addition, the aircraft was shuttling from south to north and back in the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, however, did not approach the countries’ regions bordering Russia and Belarus.
The aircraft also regularly performs flights over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, where it moves from west to east and back, without entering the airspace of any country.