A French Mirage 2000 intercepts a Russian spy plane off the coast of Estonia

A French Mirage 2000 fighter plane intercepted a Russian spy plane off the Estonian coast, the Army General Staff announced on Tuesday. “Take-off on alert and interception of Russian Il-20 “Kut” reconnaissance and intelligence aircraft off Estonian coast by French Mirage 2000-5s”.

On February 27, X wrote to l’Etat-major. “Objective: Protect the airspace of our Baltic allies.”

French military aircraft are deployed to the Baltic states in what are known as NATO missions “Sky Police”. Last November, France announced the deployment of four Mirage 2000-5* to Lithuania. They have a role “Preserving the Security of Alliance Airspace”NATO suggests on its site.

Already in May 2023, Russia indicated that it had lifted one of its warplanes to meet two military aircraft, one French and the other German, over the Baltic Sea. She accused them of being wanted “Breach the Boundary” Russian. “Foreign military aircraft returned from the state border of Russia”Welcome to the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram.

After Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on the sidelines of a meeting of European allies from Ukraine to Paris, this time the disruption of the Russian intelligence apparatus comes in a context of tension. France’s president has not ruled out sending Western troops to Ukraine to support Kiev’s troops in countering Russian aggression. A Kremlin spokesman warned that troops would not be sent to Ukraine “not in interest” Westerners. Asked about the risk of direct conflict between NATO and Russia in the event of a military presence in Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov replied that “In this case we must speak not of probability, but of inevitability”.

*The Mirage 2000 planes are designed by the Dassault group, which owns Le Figaro