NATO has said that a Russian aircraft, escorted by at least one Russian fighter jet, was tracked over the Baltic Sea earlier on August 13. 

“Jets from NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission scrambled to identify the aircraft which flew close to Allied airspace. Once identification of the aircraft had taken place, the NATO jets returned to base. NATO has no information as to who was on board,” NATO told the Accent.

On August 13 Russian TASS news agency reported that Russian fighter jets pushed away a NATO war plane after it tried to approach Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s plane over neutral waters in the Baltic Sea.

Shoigu’s aircraft had been returning to Moscow from the Russian Baltic region of Kaliningrad - which is surrounded by Poland and Lithuania - and was carrying a TASS reporter on board, the agency said.

It said a Spanish F-18 jet based in Lithuania had tried to approach Shoigu’s plane, prompting one of two Russian SU-27 fighter jets accompanying him to see it off.