Paris called unacceptable the targeting of Russian air defense radar on a spy plane
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu described the targeting of a French spy plane in the sky above the Baltic Sea by a Russian air defense radar as unacceptable. He wrote about this on January 17 on his page in the social network X (former Twitter).
"On Thursday night, a French Atlantic 2 maritime reconnaissance patrol plane became the target of Russian intimidation measures," Lecornu reported.
According to his information, the French plane was patrolling international airspace over the Baltic Sea as part of a NATO operation and was spotted by the radar guidance of the S-400 air defense system.
Earlier, on January 14, North Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte said that NATO was launching the Baltic Sentry mission to ensure the "protection of the Baltic Sea." This will include deploying a small fleet of maritime unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide "improved surveillance and deterrence," he said.
The North Atlantic Alliance's plans to strengthen its presence in the Baltic Sea to protect critical infrastructure inthe area were reported by Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal on January 2. He noted that this would be done against the backdrop of the incident involving damage to the Estonian-Finnish EstLink 2 electric cable.
Moscow has repeatedly noted that NATO countries are directly involved in strikes against Russian facilities, giving targeting instructions to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). For example, on January 16, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting in New York that the Russian side had every reason to believe that the attack on the compressor station of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline was carried out by the AFU following a tip-off from the United States and the United Kingdom.
