The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbockreported this Wednesday of a incident between a Russian ship and a German Armed Forces helicopter in the Baltic Sea.
“These are damaged cables that actually they don’t break just like that. These are jammed GPS channels, these are oil tankers illegally evading sanctions imposed there, these are incidents in which helicopters, which also come from Germany, are suddenly shot from these oil tankers”, he said when referring to hybrid threats on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.
German media later reported that the crew of a Russian ship had fired signaling ammunition against the helicopter of the German Armed Forces that was in a reconnaissance mission.
The head of German diplomacy stressed that the maintenance of Peace also requires “greater cooperation against hybrid attacks against the European peace order.”especially in the Baltic Sea region.”
In a regular press conference, Defense Ministry spokesman Michael Stempfle declined to comment on this specific incident, but noted that from time to time “violations of rules at sea or in the airspace” are recorded.
“Then it is about the Navy or the Air Force reacting to this matter sensibly, de-escalating” and he assured that “in fact they always work in a very professional manner.”
In statements to EFE, a Defense spokesperson limited herself to pointing out that “for reasons of military security” In a general manner and independently of possible individual cases, no information on operational aspects is provided.
The presence of the helicopter in the Baltic has to do with the intensification of patrols in this area to monitor oil pipelines and telecommunications cables after the repeated Russian attacks against sensitive infrastructure.
As a general rule, the use of signaling ammunition is only common in emergency situations.
(With information from EFE)
