The Netherlands' Defense Ministry says it dispatched a pair of F-35 fighters late Monday after a Russian reconnaissance aircraft and two jet fighters encroached on Polish airspace from Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave ceded to the Soviets at the end of World War II.
Poland, a NATO member country, is home to a small contingent of Dutch fighters.
The two Dutch warplanes escorted the three Russian aircraft, which reportedly had their transponders turned off.
The Russian aircraft were identified as an IL-20M “Coot-A,” used to vacuum up signals intelligence (SIGINT). The unarmed spy plane was flanked by two Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” fighter aircraft.
Fox News has more on the recent development that rung alarm bells at NATO:
The Polish defense ministry told Politico that the planes were traveling over international waters and “none of [its] airspace has been interrupted.”
The incident comes as tensions remain high between NATO and Russia over the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In a recent appearance on “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” the Polish ambassador to the United States expressed pessimism about the duration of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
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Any military-appearing aircraft entering NATO airspace with its transponder turned off should be shot down without hesitation. The Russians do it, the West should respond in same fasion.
… fashion.
Never forget that the russians HAVE shot down civilian airliners with extensive loss of life.
Of course! Senile, brain-dead Brandon is too far gone to care. We knew this way back, to be precise, when he abandoned our mission in Afghanistan, to the exquisite delight of the repressive, retrograde Taliban waiting in the wings, who are successfully returning Afghanistan to the 700 AD. He betrayed our allies and vitally encouraged our bitter enemies. Need I say more?