Russia’s ambassador to Sweden has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain why a Russian Navy Su-27 came within 20 metres of a Swedish military aircraft on February the 19th.

The incident occurred last Tuesday when a Swedish surveillance plane was on a routine mission over the Baltic Sea.

The Swedish aircraft is likely a Gulfstream IV that is modified with Signals intelligence (SIGINT) payloads.

According to Colonel Anders Persson in a local media report , the Russian fighter jet pilot behaved aggressively.

“First they passed from the front and they came back and positioned themselves very, very close – closer than usual.”

Persson said that the Russian SU-27 was at one point within 20 metres of his plane. He said the “offensive behaviour” was likely a signal from Russia that it did not believe the Swedish plane “should be where we were”.

The Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) reported the incident to the government, and now the Foreign Ministry sas it wants answers.

“The Foreign Ministry views this incident as serious. The Russian plane acted in an improper and unprofessional manner in a way that jeopardized flight safety.”