Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was forced to interrupt a press conference Thursday at a NATO air base in Lithuania because two fighter jets were sent to intercept two Russian military planes flying in the airspace over the Baltic, without being identified electronically.
The incident occurred when Sanchez and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda were talking to reporters at Siauliai base, which hosts fighter planes from several NATO member states.
Lithuanian and Spanish PM's briefing at Siauliai Air Base interrupted by Spanish Eurofighter Baltic Air Policing's scramble.
pic.twitter.com/TTS6xOWrfY
— Status-6 (@Archer83Able) July 8, 2021
Two Spanish fighters were ordered to intercept two Russian Su-24 planes flying over the international waters of the Baltic Sea.
Commenting on what happened, the Spanish Prime Minister said when the press conference resumed after half an hour, "This justifies the presence of Spanish forces in Lithuania."
A spokesman for the Lithuanian Army Staff told AFP that the two Russian planes took off from the Russian region of Kaliningrad, which borders Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said the two fighter jets had legally completed training over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, adding that no border had been breached.
Similar incidents occur in the Baltic Sea region several times a week. NATO has been monitoring the Baltic airspace since 2004, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which were under the control of the former Soviet Union - joined the alliance, amid their lack of air power to monitor their airspace.