Deputy Prime Minister MON Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz reported that on Thursday evenings a Russian SU-24 aircraft was performing dangerous maneuvers over Baltic waters, within the global zone. He added that the Russian aircraft was intercepted by Polish fighters.
"Last night in the evening, the operational command combined for NATO's alliance forces in Europe issued an order for the Polish pair to intercept a SU-24 Russian Federation aircraft" - said the head of the MON at a press conference in Krakow on Friday.
He added that Polish work couple located the plane, intercepted it and effectively deterred it. He informed that the event took place over the waters of the Baltic Sea, in an area of the global region where Polish pilots operated under NATO orders.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamish stressed that maneuvers performed by a Russian aircraft show that this is not an accidental action, only an intentional one. He besides mentioned another incidental in the Baltic - about suspicious maneuvers of the Russian ship from the "shadow float" close the power cable connecting Poland with Sweden (we wrote about this HERE). An ORP Hewelius hydrographic vessel was directed to the scene.
Russian provocations
Kosiniak-Kamysz said that together with experts of Polish Power Networks, the material collected by the ORP unit Hewelius will be analysed.
"These 2 events show, how crucial the Baltic Sea area is (...), how crucial it is to preserve the roadways of communication, trade and transport in the Baltic, to defend critical infrastructure" - the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out.
He added that deterring the hostile maneuvers of the Russian Federation in the Baltic was a task for the full North Atlantic Alliance. As he said, he would like the Baltic Sentra mission to be extended and established at the NATO summit in The Hague.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk reported on Wednesday that a Russian ship from "shadow float", which is subject to sanctions, was making suspicious maneuvers close the power cable connecting Poland with Sweden. The chief of government added that after the intervention of the Polish army, the ship sailed to 1 of the Russian ports. "Flots of Shadows" are old ships flying under the flags of 3rd countries - most frequently African - and utilized by Russia to circumvent EU sanctions.
The Baltic Sentry operation involves the warships of various NATO states, and its primary nonsubjective is to defend Baltic critical infrastructure from sabotage.
Source: PAP
