Bombers newly deployed to Kola flew near Sweden’s Gotland
Three Tu-22M3 long-range bombers performed a more than five-hour mission from the Kola Peninsula, entering the Baltic Sea air space through the narrow corridor between Finland and Estonia, before turning north again after flying near the island of Gotland.
Russia's Ministry of Defence has released a video via its TV channel Zvezda showing one of the bombers taking off from the air field at Olenya.
At take-off, that particular aircraft was armed with a missile under one of its wings.
The Tu-22M3 bombers carry Kh-22 and Kh-32 supersonic air-launched cruise missiles with a range of 600–1000 kilometres.
It is not known if the missile shown in the video was a unarmed training missile or if it was a real weapon.
During the part of the mission that took place over the Baltic Sea, the Tu-22M3 bombers were escorted by Russian Su-35S and Su-27 fighter jets, the Defence Ministry's video show.
The Swedish Air Force scrambled JAS 39 Gripen jets, following the Russian military planes as they approached Swedish air space near the island of Gotland. No territorial violations were reported, and the Russian Defence Ministry said "all flights by Russian air forces are carried out in strict compliance with international airspace regulations."
That statement is by far not true.
Russian military aircraft have multiple times violated the air space of neighbouring countries, including Norway in the high north this spring and summer, as previously reported by the Barents Observer.
🇸🇪 Swedish QRA identified 🇷🇺 Tu-22 Bombers escorted by Su-35 fighter jets over the Baltic Sea yesterday. Mission carried out in close cooperation with Baltic Air Policing. #NATOAirPolicing pic.twitter.com/Oe0H11FzDl
— Flygvapnet (@flygvapnet) November 28, 2025
While the Defence Ministry video had blurred away the the identification number of the Tu-22M3 taking off from the Kola Peninsula, the photo released by the Swedish Air Force clearly show the number being 63.
NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, currently led by Italy, launched fighter jets from the Ämari Air Base in Estonia. The Russian bombers were followed all the way outside Finnish, Estonian, Swedish, Latvian and Lithuanian air space.
It was on November 24 Russia relocated 16 of its long-range bombers from an air base in Siberia to the Olenya air base on the Kola Peninsula.
More than half of all operative Tu-22M3 bombers in the Russian air force is currently based at the Olenya air base, which is located about 150 kilometres from Russia's northern border with Finland and about 200 km from the border with Norway.
It is unknown if any of the Kola-based bombers took part in the massive Russian strikes against civilian targets in Kyiv overnight on November 29.
