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To provide air policing of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airspace, F-35B Lightning aircraft from Royal Air Force station Marham arrived at Amari airbase in Estonia on Wednesday (local time).
This comes at a time when Russian aggression in Ukraine continues and NATO is aiming to further strengthen and defend its eastern flank. "F-35B Lightning aircraft from @RAF_Marham have arrived at Amari airbase in Estonia to carry out @NATO enhanced Vigilance Activity. They will provide air policing of NATO airspace, further contributing to the security of Europe," said the UK Ministry of Defence in a tweet. On February 24, Russia launched what it called "special military operations" in Ukraine after recognising the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (in the Donbas region) as independent republics. Russia maintains that the purpose of the invasion is to "demilitarize" and "de-nazify" Ukraine. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US and its European allies have introduced sanctions targeting several major Russian banks and high-rank Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, besides ousting Russia from the SWIFT financial system. A number of countries, including Japan, South Korea and Australia, have also slapped financial sanctions and travel bans against Russia. They are mulling new targeted penalties to freeze assets and restrict travel against Russia's most influential political and military officials. (ANI)
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