MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. A US-registered NATO reconnaissance aircraft spent almost four and a half hours near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, a source in air traffic control services told TASS.

"The Bombardier Artemis II reconnaissance aircraft flew in the area of the Kaliningrad Region from its home base in Constanta, Romania. It then spent nearly four and a half hours circling the Russian region, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania as well as areas over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," the source said.

According to the source, the aircraft was detected near the Kaliningrad Region for the first time this week. Previously, its flight had been monitored over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, where it spent seven hours flying east and west in the southern part of the sea. On Monday, the Bombardier Artemis II also flew over central Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, turning near the Estonian coast of the Gulf of Finland.

"The aircraft did not approach Russia's borders at that time, and during the flight over the Black Sea, it did not enter the airspace of any coastal country other than Romania, from where it took off and where it subsequently landed," the source noted. During these flights, the aircraft operates outside civil aviation routes, usually at an altitude of around 10.5 kilometers.