Russian ambassador summoned by Denmark after warship fires flares at helicopter

BREAKING: Denmark summons Russian ambassador after a Russian warship fired flares at a helicopter during a Baltic patrol, the latest in a run of close encounters between Russian forces and NATO members this year.

A Russian warship fired flares at a helicopter over the Baltic. Denmark's response was to summon the Russian ambassador.

Here's what we know. A Danish helicopter was on a routine Baltic patrol when a Russian naval vessel put flares up at it. That's not a wave hello. Flares near an aircraft are a hazard and a message, and Copenhagen treated it as one. The ambassador got called in to explain himself, which is diplomatic language for you crossed a line.

And this isn't happening in a vacuum. It's the latest in a string of close encounters between Russian forces and NATO members this year, just days after alliance jets shot down a drone over Lithuania. Each incident on its own looks small. Together they look like a pattern of testing, prodding, seeing what NATO tolerates.

The hard truth is this. Every one of these encounters is a chance for a mistake nobody can walk back, and they're getting more frequent, not less.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.