The Swedish Armed Forces said the incidents occurred on Friday in the southern and northern areas of the Baltic Sea. Swedish airspace was not violated during either encounter, it said.

NATO fighter jets were launched “to maintain security in the shared airspace,” the Swedish military said in a statement.

“The Russian actions are serious and constitute a recurring pattern of behavior that threatens both our territorial integrity and security,” Vice Admiral Ewa Skoog Haslum, Sweden’s chief of joint operations, said.
The interceptions involved Sweden’s JAS 39 Gripen aircraft, which are used for national air defence and NATO-related missions.

Sweden joined NATO in March 2024, ending decades of military non-alignment following heightened security concerns in Europe.

Tensions in the Baltic Sea region have increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with NATO members strengthening surveillance and air patrol operations in the area.

The aircraft crashed while landing at an air force station, according to a statement from the Indian Air Force. Images from the site showed wreckage scattered across a field.

The air force expressed condolences to the families of those killed and said it stood with them during the loss.

The cause of the crash was not immediately disclosed, and authorities were expected to investigate the incident.

The AN-32 is a twin-engine military transport aircraft used by the Indian Air Force for logistics, training and operational missions.

The crash follows another recent accident involving an Indian military aircraft in Assam. In March, two Indian Air Force pilots were killed when a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashed during a routine training mission in the state.

Military aviation accidents in India have previously led to reviews of aircraft safety, maintenance and training procedures.

State news agencies TASS and RIA, citing the ministry, said the aircraft lost communication before going down on the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The ministry said the dead included 23 passengers and six crew members, with no survivors reported.“The An-26 aircraft, with which communication was lost earlier, crashed into a cliff,” TASS quoted officials at the crash site as saying.

Authorities located the wreckage in Crimea, though further operational details were not immediately disclosed.Russia’s defense ministry did not provide additional comment outside regular business hours.

RIA news agency reported that, according to an initial assessment, technical problems were believed to have caused the crash.

No confirmation was given on whether an official investigation had been launched or if other factors were being examined.

The An-26 is a Soviet-era twin-engine turboprop widely used for military transport and logistics operations.