Risky face off over Baltic

A Russian fighter conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, the US military said Tuesday.

"On June 19, a US RC-135U flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 Flanker," Europe Command spokesman Captain Joseph Alonso said in a statement.

"Due to the high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft during the intercept, this interaction was determined to be unsafe."

Meanwhile, a Nato military plane yesterday approached the plane of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu above the Baltic Sea, Russian news agencies reported, the third such encounter in three days.

A Nato fighter jet tried to approach Shoigu's plane but a Russian escort plane intervened to defend it, Interfax news agency reported, citing journalists accompanying the minister.

The escort plane, a Sukhoi SU-27, demonstrated it was armed by rocking its wings, after which the Nato plane flew off, Interfax reported.

Russian state television aired defence ministry footage of the incident, reporting that it took place over neutral waters.

Shoigu was flying to Kaliningrad, a highly militarised Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, to take part in a meeting with defence officials there.

At the meeting, he warned that "the situation near Russia's western borders is tending to get worse," TASS news agency reported.

"This is tied with the upsurge of military activity of the Nato countries in Europe," Shoigu added.

The meeting came after Nato held military exercises at the weekend in Poland on the Lithuanian border close to Kaliningrad.

Russian planes routinely intercept US jets in the skies near the Baltics and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, but the Pentagon says most of these are deemed to be safe and professional.

Yesterday, Sweden summoned Russia's ambassador after a Russian Sukhoi fighter jet flew unusually close to a Swedish reconnaissance plane above the Baltic Sea.