Polish fighter jets intercepted a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft approximately 40 km north of Ustka, Poland, over the Baltic Sea at around 13:53 local time (11:53 UTC) on 3 September 2026, according to Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. "Another incident over the Baltic involving a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft. Our fighters intercepted the Russian plane 40 kilometres north of Ustka, which had its identification systems disabled and posed a threat to civil aviation. No violation of Polish airspace occurred," Kosiniak-Kamysz said, per Defence24. The aircraft was flying with its identification systems disabled, per 15min.lt.
The Il-20 flew dark again, three days after the last intercept
The Ilyushin Il-20, NATO reporting name Coot-A, is Russia's primary electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft for the western theatre. Flying with its transponder disabled and no flight plan on file makes the aircraft invisible to civilian air-traffic control, which is what both Polish outlets flagged as the direct hazard to civil aviation in the area, distinct from the aircraft's intelligence-collection mission itself. Polish fighters intercepted and identified the aircraft in international airspace; it did not cross into Polish territory.
This is at least the tenth Russian-aircraft intercept over the Baltic Sea by Polish jets in 2026
AirVeto's own archive already counted the ninth such intercept on 31 August, 30 km north of Leba, itself part of a run stretching back to March. Three days later, the same pattern repeated roughly 50 km down the coast near Ustka - the same stretch of Polish shoreline Leba and Ustka both sit on, by AirVeto's own measurement between the two towns. Neither Polish outlet reporting this intercept gave a precise year-to-date figure, but the two intercepts landed three days apart on the same stretch of coast.
A different Russian Long-Range Aviation story broke the same day
Hours before this intercept, Russia's own Long-Range Aviation branch made news for a different reason: Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division and the officer the EU has sanctioned over the July 2024 Kh-101 strike on Kyiv's Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital, was shot near his home outside Engels, Russia - see AirVeto's full reconstruction. The two stories are not connected by any confirmed link; Engels hosts Russia's Tu-95MS/Tu-160 strategic bombers, a different airframe and mission from the Il-20 reconnaissance flights that trigger Baltic Sea intercepts. But both sit inside the same Russian Aerospace Forces apparatus - one arm probing NATO's air-defence reactions off Poland's coast, another running the long-range strikes that already reached a children's hospital in Kyiv.
Wind conditions over the Baltic Sea north of Ustka
At 11:00 UTC on 3 September, within the intercept window, the 3,000 m layer over the Baltic Sea north of Ustka showed WSW wind at 45.8 km/h. At 2,000 m the wind held SW at 45.9 km/h, a broadly consistent flow through the intercept altitude. This reconstruction is based on reporting by 15min.lt and Defence24, and on AirVeto's wind-model data for the 11:00-13:00 UTC window on 3 September 2026. AirVeto's model and its documented limits are on the methodology page.
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The full archive of military airspace incidents and intercepts over Polish territory is at Dron nad Polska.