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This week, an unarmed Russian Federation Tupolev TU-154M aircraft will undertake a transit flight over Canada en route from the United States to conduct an observation mission under the Treaty on Open Skies, reports the Department of National Defence.

The Russian Federation aircraft will stop at 8 Wing Trenton after their observation overflight of United States territory and again prior to returning to the Russian Federation, the DND noted.

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Russia usually only conducts one flight a year over Canada. A Canadian team has recently flown over Ukraine on a similar mission. A U.S.- Czech team is flying over Russia on an observation mission under the same treaty.

All Russian Federation observation aircraft sensors will be disabled during transit phases as verified by Canadian authorities.

Upon arrival at 8 Wing Trenton, the Russian Federation observation aircraft will be subject to Treaty-mandated inspections, to ensure that no imagery was taken during the transit (i.e. non-observation) flight, in order to ensure full compliance and conformity with the Treaty.