MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. A US-registered NATO reconnaissance aircraft was flying around Russia’s Kaliningrad Region for nearly four hours, a source in air traffic control services told TASS.

"The Bombardier Artemis II reconnaissance aircraft flew into the area of the Kaliningrad Region from its permanent base in Constanta, Romania, and then circled the Russian region for nearly four hours, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, as well as the sector over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," said the source. He noted that the aircraft was flying at an altitude of about 12 km, without using civil aviation flight routes.

This week, the source continued, the aircraft was spotted in the vicinity of the Kaliningrad Region for the first time. On Monday, it was spotted over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, where it flew back and forth from west to east for nearly eight hours in the southern part of the water area. The source noted in this regard that in late July, the Bombardier Artemis II set a sort of record by remaining over the Black Sea for nine hours. On October 7, it was operating over the sea alongside the Swedish Air Force’s Gulfstream S102B Korpen radar intelligence aircraft.