NATO surveillance aircraft increased their flights over the Black Sea nearly treble this year, according to Nikolai Gostev, Commander of the Russian Southern Military District’s 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army, TASS reports.
“NATO nations have recently shown a serious interest in Russia’s southern borders,” the general stated in an interview with the Southern Russia Military Bulletin daily.
“In comparison to previous year, the number of NATO reconnaissance aircraft flights over the Black Sea has nearly tripled. For contrast, our Western ‘partners’ aircraft flew 270 reconnaissance missions in 2019, 530 in 2020, and over 560 at the start of this year in the southern area of responsibility, the commander was cited in the article as adding.
According to him, French jets as well as tactical aircraft from NATO allies joined the sorties of US surveillance planes and drones.
According to him, the Army’s air defense rapid reaction alert personnel have been called out 15 times since the beginning of the year to detect and intercept foreign aircraft.
