A US-registered NATO reconnaissance aircraft spent nearly five hours circling Russia's Kaliningrad Region on 22 October, operating in the airspace of Lithuania and Poland, a source in air traffic control services told TASS.
The source said a Bombardier Artemis II, permanently based at an airfield in Constanța, Romania, arrived near the Kaliningrad Region earlier that day and flew a circuit around the area. It operated in Polish and Lithuanian airspace and over international waters in the Baltic Sea at an altitude of about 12 kilometres.
According to the source, this was the second time the aircraft had circled the Russian region since the beginning of the week. The same aircraft was also seen over international waters in the Black Sea, where it spent several hours flying back and forth between the western and eastern parts of the sea.
The source added that the aircraft had completed its mission and was heading back to its home base.