2026年4月21日 / 美国东部时间上午10:58 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
北约周一拦截了飞越波罗的海的俄军战略轰炸机和战斗机，这是该联盟在中东焦点之外展示其东部侧翼空中力量的一次行动。
法国“阵风”战斗机从立陶宛的一处空军基地起飞部署，该基地是北约长期空中警戒任务的一部分。这些搭载空空导弹的战斗机与瑞典、芬兰、波兰、丹麦和罗马尼亚的战机汇合。法国特遣部队表示，它们全部升空对俄军机进行侦察和监视。
根据声明，俄军此次任务包括2架超音速图-22M3轰炸机，以及约10架轮流为这款大型战略轰炸机护航的战斗机——苏-30和苏-35战机。
俄罗斯国防部表示，此次远程轰炸机飞行是计划内行动，飞行区域为波罗的海中立水域上空。俄国防部周一在Telegram上称，此次飞行时长超过四小时。
“在航线的某些阶段，远程轰炸机有外国战机陪同，”俄国防部称。“远程航空兵机组人员定期在北极、北大西洋、太平洋以及波罗的海和黑海的中立水域上空执行飞行任务。俄罗斯空天军战机的所有飞行都严格遵守国际空域使用规则。”
2026年4月20日由法国军方提供的这张照片显示，一架俄罗斯超音速图-22M3战略轰炸机（右）和一架护航的苏-35俄罗斯战斗机飞越波罗的海。美联社
俄国防部周二未立即回应置评请求。该部门经常通报其战略轰炸机飞越波罗的海的飞行行动，包括今年1月——当时北约战机也曾升空拦截——以及去年至少四次。
北约盟军空军司令部周二也未立即回应置评请求。
该军事联盟经常紧急出动战斗机，拦截接近或飞越北约空域的俄军战机。北约称，被拦截的俄军机经常未开启应答机，也未与空中交通管制员沟通或提交飞行计划。北约战机升空以识别这些飞机。
北约自2004年立陶宛、拉脱维亚和爱沙尼亚加入联盟以来就开展了波罗的海空中警戒任务，该任务监控的许多俄罗斯航班往返于俄罗斯飞地加里宁格勒。即便在乌克兰战争之前，北约每年拦截俄罗斯飞机的次数约为300次，大多在北欧周边海域上空。
一名美联社记者周一在立陶宛广阔的希奥利艾空军基地见证了法国特遣部队的应急响应。北约利用该基地开展战斗机巡逻，负责联盟东部侧翼的空域警戒。
2026年4月20日由法国军方提供的这张照片显示，一架俄罗斯超音速图-22M3战略轰炸机飞越波罗的海。法国陆军参谋部 via 美联社
人们看到，两名法国“阵风”战斗机机组人员——一名飞行员和一名导航员——乘坐两辆面包车从法国特遣部队在该空军基地为期四个月部署期间使用的总部大楼赶往战机机库。
机组人员早已身着飞行服，因为他们一直处于待命状态，因此如果接到紧急起飞命令，可以在数分钟内升空。
两名机组人员迅速进入战机座舱。随后他们进入待命状态，战机喷气发动机已启动，直到收到起飞命令。随后他们滑出机库，轰鸣着飞向晴朗的天空。
周一的飞行是俄罗斯在波罗的海上下区域开展行动的最新一例。过去几年里，该海域发生多起疑似俄罗斯破坏海底电缆的事件。
立陶宛国防部称，4月13日至19日期间，北约战机紧急起飞四次，拦截违反飞行规则的俄军机，这些俄军机包括关闭飞行应答机且未提交飞行计划的飞机。
2025年4月，两架隶属于北约指挥的瑞典战斗机在波罗的海上空紧急起飞，驱离一架接近波兰领空的俄罗斯侦察机。同月，英国称已派遣两架战斗机拦截一架俄罗斯IL-20“黑鸭”侦察机，两天后，英军战机又拦截了一架离开加里宁格勒空域的不明飞机。
多年来，美国和俄罗斯战机在该区域险些相撞。2018年，一架俄罗斯战斗机在波罗的海国际空域拦截一架美国海军侦察机，欧洲司令部称此次拦截是安全的——尽管两架飞机相距仅20英尺。2017年，一架武装俄罗斯战机在波罗的海上空距一架美国侦察机仅5英尺。
NATO deploys armed fighter jets to intercept Russian military planes flying over Baltic Sea
April 21, 2026 / 10:58 AM EDT / CBS/AP
NATO intercepted Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets that flew over the Baltic Sea on Monday, a muscular display of air power on the alliance’s eastern flank away from the spotlight on the Middle East.
French Rafale fighters were deployed from a Lithuanian air base where they are stationed as part of a decades-long NATO air-policing effort. The fighters armed with air-to-air missiles joined jets from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania. They all took to the skies to inspect and keep watch on the Russian flight, the French detachment said.
The Russian mission included two supersonic Tu-22M3s, as well as about 10 fighters — both SU-30s and SU-35s — that took turns escorting the larger strategic bombers, according to the statement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the long-range bombers’ flight was scheduled and occurred in airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The flight took more than four hours, the ministry said Monday on Telegram.
“At certain stages of the route, the long-range bombers were accompanied by fighters of foreign states,” the ministry said. “Crews of long-range aviation regularly conduct flights over the neutral waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Baltic and Black Seas. All flights of Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft are carried out in strict compliance with international rules for the use of airspace.”
In this photo provided by the French Army on April 20, 2026, a Russian supersonic Tu-22M3 strategic bomber, right, and an escorting Su-35 Russian fighter jet fly over the Baltic Sea. AP
The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. It often reports flights by its strategic bombers over the Baltic Sea, including in January — when NATO jets also flew up to meet them — and at least four times last year.
NATO’s Allied Air Command also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The military alliance routinely scrambles fighter aircraft to intercept Russian warplanes that approach or fly near NATO airspace. NATO says the Russian planes it intercepts often fail to use their transponders and don’t communicate with air traffic controllers or file a flight plan. NATO jets are sent up to identify them.
Many of the Russian flights that NATO monitors with its Baltic air policing mission — in place since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined the alliance in 2004 — are to and from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Even before the war in Ukraine, NATO was intercepting Russian planes around 300 times each year, mostly over waters around northern Europe.
A journalist from The Associated Press witnessed the French detachment’s response on Monday from the sprawling Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania. NATO uses the base for fighter patrols that police the skies on the alliance’s eastern flank.
In this photo provided by the French Army on April 20, 2026, a Russian supersonic Tu-22M3 strategic bomber flies over the Baltic Sea. Etat-Major des Armees via AP
Two French Rafale fighter jets’ two-man crews — a pilot and a navigator — were seen racing in two vans to the planes’ hangars from the headquarters building the French detachment uses during its four-month deployment on the air base.
The crews were already suited up because they’d been on standby, so they would be ready to take to the air within minutes if scrambled.
The two crews quickly took their places in their planes’ cockpits. They were then put on hold, with the planes’ jet engines ignited, until they got the order to take off. Then they taxied out of their hangars and roared off into the clear skies.
Monday’s flight was the latest in Russia’s maneuvers over — and under — the Baltic Sea. Over the last few years, there have been several incidents of alleged Russian sabotage of underwater cables in the sea.
Lithuania’s defense ministry said NATO jets were scrambled four times from April 13-19 to intercept Russian aircraft that violated flight rules that included turning off flight transponders and flying without a flight plan.
In April 2025, two Swedish fighter jets under NATO command were scrambled over the Baltic Sea to escort away a Russian reconnaissance plane that was approaching Polish airspace. That same month, Britain said it had dispatched two of its fighter jets to intercept a Russian IL-20 Coot reconnaissance plane, and two days later, the jets intercepted an unknown aircraft leaving Kaliningrad air space.
U.S. and Russian aircraft have had close calls in the region over the years. In 2018, a Russian fighter jet intercepted a U.S. Navy spy plane over international airspace above the Baltic Sea in what the European Command is describing as a safe intercept — even though the aircraft came within 20 feet of each other. In 2017, an armed Russian jet came within five feet of a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea.
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