Skip to main content
Nato aircraft confronted Russian planes 290 times in 2021, report reveals as border tensions rise
Russian soldiers take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region in southern Russia

NATO warplanes confronted Russian aircraft 290 times in 2021, most of the time along Russia’s western borders, the US-led alliance reported today.

It means nearly 80 per cent of Nato’s 370 flight missions this year involved confrontations with the Russian air force.

Tensions between the military bloc and Russia are rising as Moscow warns against its expansion into Ukraine.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
US President Donald Trump during a press conference at Chequers, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, on day two of the president's second state visit to the UK. Picture date: Thursday September 18, 2025
Features / 27 September 2025
27 September 2025

In Washington, the willingness to accept an open war with Russia is growing — at Europe’s expense. While Nato states are being drawn into confrontation, Europe risks becoming the battlefield of a potential world war, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN

Territorial defense officers clean up debris from the destroyed roof of a house, after multiple Russian drones struck in Wyryki near Lublin, Poland, September 11, 2025
Eastern Europe / 13 September 2025
13 September 2025

MARK HAZELDEN criticises the Western narrative that the incident was an escalation of Russia’s confrontation with the West, given that Belarus, a Russian ally, warned Poland of off-course drones, and the drones were unarmed, cheap wooden decoys

President Donald Trump meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House, August 18, 2025, in Washington
Features / 22 August 2025
22 August 2025

Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES