A US-registered NATO Bombardier ARTEMIS II reconnaissance aircraft has been spotted 69 times near Russia’s Kaliningrad region since the beginning of the year, and is currently making its 70th flight there, a source in the Russian air traffic control services told TASS.

The source added that the aforesaid plane flies at an altitude of about 10 km, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, as well as over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. According to the interlocutor, the first flight of this reconnaissance aircraft over Kaliningrad this year was recorded on January 2.

Since early November, as per the source, this reconnaissance aircraft had already appeared near the Kaliningrad region four times, and the duration of its circular flight varied from one to four hours. The Bombardier ARTEMIS II, which is permanently based at the airport in Constanta, Romania, flies several routes.

In addition to flights around Russia’s Kaliningrad region, it flies over the neutral waters of the southern Black Sea, over the central regions of the Baltic states, and makes a turn near the Estonian coast of the Gulf of Finland, as well as over the Mediterranean Sea.