MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax-AVN) - An automatic drifting aerostat launched from the Kiruna airbase in Sweden violated the Russian border late on Thursday, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, chief of the Air Force press service, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The air balloon crossed the state border at an altitude of 8,000 m 196 km southwest of Murmansk at 7:15 p.m. Moscow time (1615 GMT). It was tracked by radars all the way until it fell down on the Russian territory," Drobyshevsky stressed.
The aerostat was launched from Sweden at 3:30 p.m. Moscow time (1230 GMT) without notifying the Russian Air Force or air traffic control bodies, he said.
The air traffic control service of a Finnish close-to-border town notified Russia on the approaching aerostat at 7:00 p.m. Moscow time (1600 GMT), he added.