News agency Reuters is reporting that Poland has summoned Russia's ambassador to the nation on Wednesday over an incident involving a Russian fighter jet and Polish border guard LET410 aircraft over the Black Sea on 5th May.
The very near-miss has put NATO's air policing units on a higher state of readiness and had a negative effecting on the already fractious relationship between Russia and Poland.
The Polish border guard aircraft was on patrol for the European Union's border agency Frontex, around 13:20 local time, 60 km to the east from Romanian airspace when it narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian Su-35 fighter jet Poland said. The pilots of the small twin-propeller aircraft briefly lost control of the aircraft and were forced to make an emergency landing after a series of aggressive and dangerous manoeuvres by the Russian fighter.
A spokesperson for the Polish government commented: "The crew of five Polish border guard officers lost control of the plane and lost altitude. The Russian warplane flew right in front of the nose of the plane, crossing its flight path at a dangerous distance. According to the crew’s assessment, it was about five metres away."
The Ministry of National Defence of Romania said the aggressive and dangerous manoeuvres were repeatedly carried out by the fighter jet. "The Romanian authorities are in contact with Frontex and the Polish authorities to find out all the circumstances of the incident. The aggressive behaviour of a military aircraft belonging to the Russian Federation towards an unarmed aircraft carrying out the Frontex mission of monitoring migration risks in the Black Sea basin is unacceptable. This incident is another proof of the provocative behaviour of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea," the Ministry of Defence of Romania said in a statement.
This is the latest incident in a series of aviation incidents involving Russian aircraft. A week ago the RAF along with the Norwegian Air Force had to scramble fighters to intercept intercept a Russian Tu-142 maritime patrol plane that was approaching British airspace from the North Atlantic. Dutch fighter jets have intercepted a number of Russian aircraft along the Polish border and in February, a Russian fighter jet deliberately dumped fuel over, and hitting a US reconnaissance drone that was operating over the Black Sea, causing it to crash.
Last year two Russian Su-27 fighter jets had intercepted an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint communications aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea. Ben Wallace, the UK's Defence Secretary said the flying of the Russian pilots had been reckless, with one of the fighters coming within 5 metres of the British jet. One of the fighters actually launched a missile, however, this has been reported as a technical malfunction rather than a hostile act.
Elsewhere in Poland, a military object found in a Polish forest in April was a Russian CH-55 missile, local media RMF FM and Polsat News have reported today. Polish authorities said in April that a "military object" had been found in a forest close to the village of Zamosc near the northern city of Bydgoszcz, without going into further details about its origin. The area where the object was found is hundreds of kilometres from Poland's borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.