Ukraine crisis: US fighter jets arrive in Estonia for training
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Airmen from the US and England arrive at Amari Air Base in Estonia on Jan 24, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TALLINN, ESTONIA (AFP, REUTERS) - Six United States fighter jets arrived in Estonia on Wednesday (Jan 26) to boost the Nato mission there, as tensions in the region rise over fears of a Russian assault on Ukraine.
The F-15E jets arrived at the Amari base in northwest Estonia to take part in an exercise along with four Danish jets due to arrive in Lithuania on Thursday.
"The additional aircraft will work closely with the current detachments to increase our readiness, build crucial inter-operability and underline the robust solidarity across the Alliance," Major-General Joerg Lebert, Chief of Staff at Headquarters Allied Air Command in Germany, said in a statement, referring to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) military alliance.
"The aircraft plan to work with other Allied nations throughout the Baltics practising air-to-air and air-to-ground training manoeuvres in addition to the Air Policing missions", the Allied Air Command said in a statement.
On Monday, Nato said it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets, in what Russia denounced as Western "hysteria" in response to its build-up of troops on the Ukraine border.
The exercise is taking place after Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas called for a greater US presence in the Baltic states in order to deter Russia.
Following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Nato set up a Baltic air policing mission and placed multinational battle groups in the three Baltic states and Poland.
The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were once ruled from Moscow but are now part of both Nato and the European Union. They do not operate fighter jets and rely on Nato to police their airspace.
Tensions are running high after Russia massed an estimated 100,000 troops within reach of its neighbour's border, surrounding Ukraine from the north, east and south.
Moscow has demanded in recent weeks that forces from other Nato countries should be pulled back from the Western military alliance's eastern flank.
