Turkey has sent an AWACS radar plane to Lithuania after Russia violated the airspace of NATO countries, Turkish media reported, citing Bloomberg, BTA reported.
Representatives of the Turkish authorities told the American media that the radar plane, which ground-based radars cannot detect, was sent to Lithuania on Monday, September 24. According to the publication, cited by the Turkish websites "Diken", "Oksijen" and "Nefes", the AWACS mission capable of detecting unmanned aerial vehicles and other objects, will end today.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakalenė meanwhile told journalists that these missions in the Baltic republic will continue.
"There will be several such missions," she told journalists, quoted by TASS, after reports of the dispatch of a Turkish AWACS aircraft to Lithuania. The minister did not specify the dates of their implementation "for security reasons", but stressed that "this will not be a one-off mission".
According to Bloomberg's sources, who wished to remain anonymous because the information is classified, the temporary mission is an expression of solidarity between NATO members.
This comes after three cases of Russian drones or fighter jets entering NATO countries - Poland, Romania and Estonia - were reported in less than two weeks. On September 9, Poland announced that Russian drones had violated its airspace. Then a Russian drone was also detected in Romanian airspace, and finally, on September 19, it was reported that Russian aircraft had violated Estonian airspace, prompting NATO aircraft to be scrambled.
On September 24, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalenė said that Spanish Eurofighter fighter jets stationed in the region were ready to respond to any possible violations of airspace by Russian drones, the media also reminded.