As German media reported on Saturday, including “Bild”, on Friday at 9.16 NATO was alerted by the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Bundeswehr team and 16 minutes later two Eurofightery launched from the Laage air base near Rostock.
At 9.54 German fighters have achieved their goal. In the international airspace north of Poland, at the height of Kołobrzeg, Eurofightery made eye contact and documented a photo of the Russian reconnaissance aircraft Il-20M.
But even after that – reports “Bild” – the Russian plane did not turn back, but continued the flight west, changing only the course to the north about 40 km from the island of Uznam. So there was no violation of the German airspace. In the opinion of the newspaper, however, this maneuver can be seen as a clear provocation and test for the Western military alliance.
The Russians enter NATO space. Incident series
Referring to military sources, “Bild” informs that the Friday interception maneuver – this is the ninth such operation in 2025.
Russian reconnaissance planes Il-20M regularly start from Königsberg to collect information about NATO activities along the Baltic coast-especially in Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
June 13, 2025 at approx. 10.50 The Russian reconnaissance aircraft Ił-20 violated the Polish airspace at the Baltic Sea at a depth of about 2 km-the RSZ operational command at the time. She added that even before violating the Polish border, a couple on duty of British fighters stationed in Poland was picked up; The machines intercepted and identified the Russian plane, which then left the Polish airspace.
