France intercepted a Russian plane near Estonia

Russian Il-20 aircraft. Photo: Papadopolu / AviaPressPhoto

France said its fighter jet had intercepted a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance and surveillance plane off the coast of Estonia.

«European Truth» writes about this with reference to the message of the French General Staff.

The message says that France raised a Mirage 2000 fighter jet on alert and intercepted the Il-20 near the coast of Estonia.

«The goal: to protect the airspace of our Baltic allies,» the French General Staff said.

French military aircraft are based in some NATO member states as part of a mission called «NATO Air Police». These missions were intensified after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, there have been several interceptions of aircraft that did not cause any serious incident. For example, in March 2023, a Russian plane collided with an American drone in the Black Sea.

We will remind, on February 27, the Ukrainian military shot down another Russian Su-34 aircraft in the eastern direction.