Fighter jets from Nato’s Baltic air policing mission have scrambled to intercept 22 Russian aircraft in multiple formations over the past week, including two of the largest interceptions over eastern Europe since tensions with Moscow began to rise 18 months ago.
In total, Nato aircraft have had to conduct emergency deployments on more than 250 occasions this year over Europe, Nato officials said — the highest number for an equivalent period since the end of the cold war.
The alliance’s Baltic Air Policing mission has conducted 120 of those scrambles. The Europe-wide figure compares with 400 events for the whole of 2014, marking what Nato sees as a steady growth in the size and seriousness of Russia’s aerial provocations.
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