Russian Planes Keep NATO Forces Busy on Christmas
NATO scrambled jets to monitor flights near Poland and over the Barents and Norwegian Seas on Christmas as Russian planes carried out incursions over Baltic airspace.

Calling it “another busy night,” the Polish military says it intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane flying close to its airspace over the Baltic Sea in the early morning hours of Christmas.
“This morning, over the international waters of the Baltic Sea, Polish fighter jets intercepted, visually identified, and escorted from their area of responsibility a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near the borders of Polish airspace,” the army said in a statement reviewed by Reuters.
The latest incursion comes after Polish military jets scrambled on Tuesday as Russia carried out widespread strikes in Ukraine, Fox News reported.
Another incursion took place over the border with Belarus — which is an ally of Russia. Those objects were later determined to most likely be smuggling balloons.
The military said the flight of all objects was continuously monitored by radar systems. To ensure safety, a portion of the airspace over the Podlaskie Voivodeship region in northeastern Poland was temporarily closed to civilian flight traffic.
Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have been on high alert for months since three Russian jets violated Estonia’s airspace and Russian drones entered Polish airspace.
In a separate incident, Russia reportedly flew nuclear bombers near northern Britain in the early morning hours of Christmas.
The Russian defense ministry released video of the bombers in the air and said they carried out a scheduled seven-hour mission in the skies over the Barents and Norwegian Seas. The propeller planes were escorted by Russian Su-33 fighters.
It was unclear how close the planes flew to the United Kingdom but NATO reportedly scrambled jets to monitor the long-range bombers. NATO did not release any confirmation of the encounter.
