US fighter jet flies over Baltic Sea near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region — source

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. A US fighter jet is flying over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea near the Kaliningrad Region, a source in the EU’s air traffic control services told TASS. "About half an hour ago, a fifth-generation American fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II, designed, among other things, for reconnaissance missions, began flying over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea near the Kaliningrad Region," the source said. He explained that the aircraft flew in from Reykjavík, passing through the airspace of Norway and Sweden along the way, and also flying over Poland. "It is currently performing maneuvers over the water at an altitude of about one kilometer (about 0.6 miles - TASS), including crossing corridors designated for civilian aviation flights," the source noted. He also described the appearance of this type of aircraft in the area as a very rare occurrence. The day before, a source told TASS that a NATO Bombardier ARTEMIS II reconnaissance aircraft, along with a Boeing E-3A Sentry long-range radar detection and control aircraft and a US Gulfstream EA-37B Compass Call II electronic warfare aircraft, were conducting flights near the Kaliningrad Region. Specifically, the Bombardier ARTEMIS II was flying around the region, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, as well as areas over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. Die Welt also reported that NATO reconnaissance aircraft and fighter jets were spotted near the Kaliningrad Region on Tuesday. The newspaper noted that Polish ground forces and other units participated in the maneuvers, which were led by the US. Commenting on this information at the newspaper’s request, a NATO spokesperson said that "NATO partners are constantly improving their defense capabilities." Meanwhile, Carlo Masala, a professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, wrote on his X page that there had been a significant concentration of air forces in the Kaliningrad area.