Russian Aircraft Intercepts Over ‘NATO Lake’ at Alarming Rate [Video]

Russian military aircraft are being intercepted by NATO forces at an alarming rate over the Baltic Sea.

A NATO official confirmed to Newsweek that about 200 interceptions of Russian aircraft were carried out by the alliance’s air policing units over the Baltic in 2023, while from January 1 to September 30 this year about 190 Russian military aircraft have been intercepted in the region.

Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately return a request for comment. It said previously that the country’s pilots “regularly fly over the international waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black and Baltic Seas, and the Pacific Ocean.”

The Baltic Sea has been labeled as a “NATO lake” since Finland and Sweden’s accession to the trans-Atlantic alliance, following the illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, which challenged the security of NATO’s eastern flank.

The Russian military has strategic access to the Baltic Sea and …