Russian Warships, Fighter Jets Intercepted Near NATO Borders

NATO forces intercepted Russian navy ships and aircraft near the alliance's sea and airspace this week, amid leaders gathering in the U.S.

Germany said Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft on a NATO air policing mission scrambled to identify two Russian MiG-29 jets off the coast of Latvia, according to a brief statement by the Luftwaffe.

The pair of Russian fighters were "flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea without a flight plan or contact to civil air traffic control," the German Air Force said on Wednesday.

An accompanying image appeared to show two MiG-29KRs, whose serial numbers placed them in the service of a Russian naval aviation unit based in the Northern Fleet garrison of Severomorsk—a closed town in Russia's northwestern Murmansk region—open-source researchers said on X (formerly Twitter).

Separately on Monday, Dutch navy commander Vice Adm. Rene Tas said three Russian ships were escorted through the Netherlands' exclusive economic waters extending 200 nautical miles from the country's coast.

Tas, who is also Admiral Benelux, or the most senior officer in charge of the combined Dutch and Belgian naval forces, shared images on X that showed two of the ships—the Russian frigate Neustrashimy and an Altay-class oiler, both assigned to Russia's Baltic Fleet.

Tas said the encounter happened over the weekend, when the Dutch navy also was involved in a Greek navy frigate's shoot-down of two drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

NATO members surround the Baltic Sea on all sides. Warships of the Russia's Baltic Fleet garrison in Kaliningrad, an exclave between Poland and Lithuania. Their movements to and from the North Sea and the wider North Atlantic Ocean are closely watched.

In Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, NATO leaders gathering for the alliance's 75th anniversary declared Russia "the most significant and direct threat" to their security amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

"We fully support Ukraine's right to choose its own security arrangements and decide its own future, free from outside interference. Ukraine's future is in NATO. Ukraine has become increasingly interoperable and politically integrated with the Alliance," the leaders said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded on Thursday by describing NATO as "an alliance created in the era of confrontation to maintain confrontation." He said: "The alliance fulfills its functions. Tensions are escalating on the European continent."

For the first time, NATO suggested China's closeness with Russia also represented a threat to transatlantic security.

"The [People's Republic of China] has become a decisive enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine through its so-called 'no limits' partnership and its large-scale support for Russia's defense industrial base," the communique said.

"The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation," it said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian likened the statement to "scaremongering," adding: "Its paragraphs on China contain a load of biases, smears and provocations."

"NATO's reach into the Asia-Pacific, strengthening of its military and security ties with China's neighboring countries and U.S. allies, and collaboration with the U.S. to implement the Indo-Pacific strategy harm China's interests and disrupt peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific," Lin said.

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