Nato jet buzzes Russian defence minister’s plane

A PLANE carrying the Russian defence minister was involved in a mid-air altercation with a Nato fighter jet, Russian media claimed yesterday.

In a sign of rising tensions, the Nato F-16 is said to have been chased away by a Russian Sukhoi-27 military jet as they flew over the Baltic Sea.

A video purporting to show Sergei Shoigu’s plane being ‘buzzed’ by the Nato jet appeared on Russian TV yesterday. One of the Russian fighter jet escorts inserted itself between the defence minister’s plane and the NATO fighter and tilted its wings from side to side in an apparent bid to show the weapons it was carrying.

Mr Shoigu was en route to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad for a meeting to discuss how well Russia’s western flank was defended.

A Nato official later said the alliance ‘can confirm that three Russian aircraft, including two fighters, were tracked over the Baltic Sea earlier today.’

‘As the aircraft did not identify themselves or respond to air traffic control, Nato fighter jets scrambled to identify them, according to standard procedures.’