(ANSA) - ROME, OCTOBER 06 - Eight take-offs in a week, the last one this morning, 16 in the two months of activity of the 'Air White Eagle' taskforce engaged in Poland to protect NATO airspace.
"An impressive number and the incursions are intensifying in the last few days", Colonel Salvatore Florio, commander of the contingent deployed on the hotline of the North-East front of the Alliance, explains to ANSA.
He is himself one of the pilots who takes turns on the Eurofighters that take off in a few minutes to intercept a potentially hostile plane.
"Sometimes the Russians are more cooperative, others less, but we have the utmost attention to avoid any kind of misunderstanding, not to escalate the situation", assures Florio.
In a moment of such high tension, "we have no room for error".
(HANDLE).