Russian bomber forced out of Swedish airspace after ignoring warnings from air command

A Russian military aircraft has been intercepted when it violated Swedish airspace east of the southern tip of Gotland.

The Swedish military said the Sukhoi Su-24 tactical bomber entered Sweden's airspace without permission, forcing a Swedish JAS-39 Gripen aircraft to intercept it.

The incident ended with the Russian aircraft being forced out of the airspace.

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The Swedish armed forces said the Russian Su-24, which has the Nato codename Fencer, failed to heed a verbal warning from the Swedish air combat command, forcing it to respond by deploying the Gripen.

Russian aircraft previously violated Swedish airspace in 2022 when two Su-27s and two Su-24s flew over Gotland.

Air force chief Jonas Wikman said: "The Russian actions are not acceptable and show a lack of respect for our territorial integrity.

"We followed the entire process and were on site to intervene."

And defence minister Pål Jonson said: "I was informed by the armed forces about the violation of Sweden's airspace that took place.

"The Russian behaviour is unacceptable and unprofessional.

"It is good that the Swedish armed forces' incident response intervened and rejected the Russian warplane."

In a separate incident, the Finnish MOD now believes four Russian military aircraft violated Finnish airspace rather than the one aircraft previously reported.