Russian jets ward off two American strategic bombers over Black Sea
Two Russian fighter jets have intercepted a pair of US B-52 strategic bombers as they were heading toward Russian airspace over the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry says.
The ministry’s National Defense Management Center said in a statement on Wednesday that two Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets had been scrambled to ward off the two US aircraft earlier in the day after the Russian air defense picked them up on radar over the Black Sea.
The statement, carried by TASS news agency, added that the two strategic bombers of the US Air Force were approaching the Russian border when they were successfully intercepted by the Russian warplanes.
“Two Su-27 fighter jets of the Southern Military District’s air defense units on duty were scrambled to identify the air targets and to prevent their unauthorized incursion into the Russian airspace,” the statement said.
The ministry stressed that “no violation” of the state border of Russia had been allowed.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukraine’s Air Force said that US B-52H strategic bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, had entered Ukrainian airspace within what it called the framework of security cooperation.
American bombers and spy planes, as well as NATO aircraft, have frequently been detected near Russia’s western borders.
On September 18, the Russian military’s official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported that 44 jets had been engaged in reconnaissance activities close to Russia’s airspace in one week. A weekly infographic published by the same outlet further showed that Russian warplanes had been scrambled five times to intercept foreign aircraft within the period.
The provocative flights have particularly increased in frequency since 2014, when the then-Ukrainian territory of Crimea voted overwhelmingly to fall under Russian sovereignty and when a military conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly expressed concern about the increasing activities of the US-led NATO forces near its western borders.
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