The incident comes amid a recent spate of violations of NATO nations’ airspace by Russian planes and drones.
Polish fighters intercepted a Russian plane on Tuesday that was flying a reconnaissance mission in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, the Polish army said on Oct. 29. The Russian plane was flying without a filed flight plan, and its transponder was turned off.
“On October 28, 2025, a pair of on-duty MiG-29 Polish Air Force fighters successfully intercepted, visually identified, and escorted a Russian Federation aircraft out of the area of responsibility, which was conducting a flight over the Baltic Sea,” Poland’s Operational Command of the Armed Forces posted on X.
28 października 2025 roku para dyżurna myśliwców MiG-29 🇵🇱 Sił Powietrznych dokonała skutecznego przechwycenia, identyfikacji wizualnej oraz eskortowania z rejonu odpowiedzialności samolotu Federacji Rosyjskiej, który wykonywał lot nad Morzem Bałtyckim.
— Dowództwo Operacyjne RSZ (@DowOperSZ) October 29, 2025
Polskie myśliwce… pic.twitter.com/oKNh8LRFRX
“Polish fighters intercepted an Il-20 Russian aircraft carrying out a reconnaissance mission in international airspace, without a filed flight plan and with its transponder turned off. The aircraft did not violate Polish airspace.”
Lt. Col. Jacek Goryszewski, spokesman for the Operational Command, told Polish outlet TVN24 that the jets were in the air “within minutes” of being alerted to the presence of Moscow’s fighter.
He said that during the operation, the Polish planes simply escorted the errant aircraft away but added that “further actions could be taken by our pilots if Russian pilots were to take steps that we would not want, i.e. attempt to violate our airspace or perform other dangerous maneuvers.”
Though Moscow has not commented on this particular incident, it has in the past maintained that all flights by its military aircraft over neutral waters are conducted strictly in line with international regulations and do not pose any threat to foreign air traffic.
The incident comes as NATO’s eastern member states remain on high alert to incursions by Russian aircraft following a series of airspace violations in the region by Moscow.
A trio of armed Russian MiG fighters entered Estonia’s airspace for more than 10 minutes on Sept. 19, in what the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s top political body, condemned as a “dangerous violation.”
The incursion into Estonian airspace came just days after more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace, with Warsaw’s defenses shooting several of them down.
By Guy Birchall
