Sweden Scrambles Jets to Intercept Russian Aircraft Near Border

Sweden said on Saturday that it scrambled JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets the day before to intercept Russian military aircraft that appeared to be flying near Swedish borders.

The Swedish military reported in a statement that there were two separate incidents on Friday when Russian Su-24 and Su-34 fighter jets flew in the Baltic Sea region, but never entered Swedish airspace.

“Russia's actions are serious and are a recurring behavior that threatens both our territorial integrity and security,” Vice Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, chief the armed forces operations command, said in a statement. “Swedish and allied fighter aircraft acted quickly, resolutely and clearly by meeting the Russian planes and securing the territory of Sweden and the alliance.”

Having joined NATO in 2024, Sweden has become a major target of Kremlin provocations as a string of military incidents — unauthorized drones entering its airspace and Russian submarines encountered near its maritime borders — have focused on the Baltic Sea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On the same day of the incidents, the Swedish government warned in a defense report that it “sees a risk that the confrontation between Russia and Europe will deepen further.”

Russian planes pestering NATO airspace has become the norm in recent years. Canada and the U.S. dispatched fighter jets in March to intercept two Russian military aircraft flying too close to Alaskan airspace.