Canada fighter Jets depart for eastern Europe patrols

Six Canadian CF-18 fighter jets departed for Romania on Tuesday to participate in increased NATO patrols over Eastern Europe amid rising tensions with Russia over its intervention in Ukraine. The multi-role military airplanes took off from their base in Bagotville, Quebec on Tuesday morning (1300 GMT). In Romania, the jets will be conducting “training activities in support of [NATO] reassurance measures” in Central and Eastern Europe, Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said. The mission is to demonstrate “the strength of allied solidarity in response to Russian aggression,” another Canadian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). France, Britain, and Poland already have deployed additional fighter aircraft to Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia in response to Russia’s military buildup along its border with former Soviet-era satellite Ukraine. Four warplanes from Denmark also are heading to the region. NATO announced earlier this month it would increase its defenses in Eastern Europe due to the growing crisis in Ukraine. The defense alliance also has deployed ships in the Baltic and eastern Mediterranean Seas.