"Thursday afternoon the Danish and Swedish Quick Reaction Alert jets a Russian military aircraft in the airspace over the Baltic Sea. This is the first time that Denmark and Sweden have worked together in this way," the statement said.
The Danish air force added that Russian military planes regularly patrol the Baltic Sea, and their flight patterns often cause Denmark or its neighboring countries to scramble military planes.
"What made the mission special was that the collaboration was planned in advance," the statement read.
The IL-20 is a Russian electronic signals intelligence military aircraft (NATO code name Coot-A), a variant of the turboprop airliner Il-18.