MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/. A NATO reconnaissance aircraft is performing a flight near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, and it has circled the region’s borders several times, a source in the EU air traffic control services told TASS.

"The Bombardier Artemis II aircraft, which took off from its base airfield in Constanta, Romania, has circled the borders of the Kaliningrad Region several times," the source said. He noted that the aircraft is flying within the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, but is not entering areas over the Baltic Sea’s neutral waters. "The aircraft is navigating at an altitude of 11 km, and is also using air corridors for airliners," the source noted. He recalled that on Monday, a Bombardier Artemis II aircraft had circled over international waters in the southern Black Sea for more than six hours, setting a record for the longest time a NATO aircraft had operated in that area.

Regarding flights near the Kaliningrad Region, the source also recalled that this reconnaissance aircraft conducts a full circle around the Russian region, as a rule. This was the case, for instance, on July 23. "Flights solely along land borders are quite rare, but they have occurred, including in the last two months," the source noted.