The crew of a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea shot signal ammunition at a German military helicopter, according to dpa sources on Wednesday.
The helicopter had been on a reconnaissance mission.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had briefly mentioned the incident on the fringes of a NATO meeting in Brussels. However, she did not give any details or specify when it occurred.
Baerbock said that there are often ships in the Baltic Sea that are involved in circumventing sanctions imposed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The use of signal ammunition such as flares is usually only common in emergency situations.
NATO foreign ministers are in Brussels to discuss the future of Ukraine’s defence against the full-scale Russian invasion as well as Russian hostile acts against members of the alliance known as hybrid attacks.
This generic term covers actions that state or non-state actors use to harm other countries without waging open warfare. As a rule, they are difficult or impossible to attribute to a specific perpetrator.
Baerbock said that the monitoring of pipelines and data cables in the Baltic Sea is to be stepped up. The protection of critical infrastructure by patrols should be expanded, she said.
Baerbock cited the destruction of cables, the jamming of the global positioning system (GPS) and the incident involving the German Bundeswehr helicopter and the Russian ship as examples.
Most recently, damage to two fibre optic cables in the Baltic Sea occurred within a short space of time in November.
These were a cable running between Sweden and Lithuania and another cable between Finland and Germany. The cause is still unclear in both cases.
A gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was previously severely damaged last year.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, speaks to journalists during a press event ahead of a the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting at NATO headquarters. Ansgar Haase/dpa
