More American F-15s land in Poland

More American F-15 combat aircraft landed at the Łask airbase in central Poland on Monday to help patrol the skies of the Baltic states.

The arrival of the eight aircraft comes amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"Further American F-15 fighters landed today at the airbase in Łask," Mariusz Błaszczak, the defence minister, tweeted on Monday. "The eight aircraft will join those that came to Poland last week. Within the framework of Nato's Air Policing mission we're taking care of security in the region."

On February 10, the Ministry of Defence announced that F-15s had flown into the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Łask to take part in Nato's mission to police the airspace of the Baltic states. The aircraft will remain in Poland until the end of February.

Nato countries are supporting Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which lack warplanes capable of patrolling their airspace. The mission is currently in its 58th deployment, with Poland contributing its Orlik contingent for the tenth time.

Baltic Air Policing aircraft are often used to identify Russian aircraft flying to and from Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. According to Nato, Russian planes often approach alliance airspace without communicating to flight control or submitting a flight plan, and with their localisation and identification transponders switched off.

The mission is controlled by Nato's regional multinational air force command in Uedem, Germany.