October 23, 2014, 3:39 am <\/p>\n
Brussels (AFP) - NATO fighter jets intercepted a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea after it breached Estonian airspace, the alliance said Wednesday in the latest of such incidents amid tensions with Moscow over Ukraine. <\/p>\n
The Ilyushin IL-20 \"intelligence collection aircraft\", which took off from the Russian Baltic coast enclave of Kaliningrad on Tuesday, was first intercepted by Danish F-16 jets when it approached Denmark, NATO said in a statement. <\/p>\n
It then flew north towards non-NATO member Sweden which also sent jets to intercept the plane. <\/p>\n
Nearly four hours later the plane flew towards NATO member Estonia and was detected in Estonian airspace \"for a period of less than one minute, which represented an incursion of about 600 metres (yards) into NATO airspace,\" it said. <\/p>\n
Portuguese F-16s spotted the Russian propeller plane and escorted it out of NATO airspace, the alliance said. <\/p>\n
The Ukraine crisis has produced the worst east-west tension since the end of the Cold War. <\/p>\n
NATO has stepped up its Baltic air patrols due to what it says is a surge in intercepts of Russian warplanes near Polish and Baltic airspace since Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March. <\/p>\n
The Swedish Navy meanwhile has been searching for a suspected Russian submarine off the coast of Stockholm for nearly a week, although it said Wednesday it was pulling back some of its ships. <\/p>\n
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