NATO has scrambled fighter jets more than 400 times this year to intercept Russian military flights close to alliance members' airspace in Europe, the alliance's secretary general said this week. That's a 50% increase in Russian air activity over last year and the kind of activity that harkens back to the days of the Cold War, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to NATO member Estonia on Thursday. "This pattern is risky and unjustified. So NATO remains vigilant. We are here. And we are ready to defend all allies against any threat," he said at Amari Airbase in Estonia, where U.S., German and Estonian troops were gathered.
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That's a 50% increase in Russian air activity over last year, secretary general says
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Russian planes are not following air traffic control norms, Jens Stoltenberg says
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"This pattern is risky and unjustified," he says
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Stoltenberg, who's on a trip to the Baltics, says NATO isn't idle as Russian activity increases
Stoltenberg said few of the Russian flights had actually violated the airspace of @placeholder nations, but he said the way the Russian planes operate threatens civilian aviation in the region.
And since the start of this year, @placeholder allies have conducted over 200 exercises," Stoltenberg said