- Russia said it detected ‘two air targets’ flying towards Russian air space
- Incident came as Russia flew two of its own nuclear bombers over Sea of Japan
This is the dramatic moment a Russian fighter jet intercepted a pair of US nuclear bombers over the Baltic Sea, just days after an American drone was downed.
Russia’s defence ministry said a single Su-35 was scrambled to meet the B-52 strategic bombers that were flying in the direction of the Russian border on Monday, but that it returned to base after they moved away.
The development came as Moscow said it had flown two of its own nuclear bombers over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours, in a statement released as Japan’s prime minister was beginning a surprise visit to Ukraine – and as China’s premier Xi Jinping continues his own visit to Moscow.
Russia’s Tupolev Tu-95MS planes are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and Moscow regularly flies them over international waters in the Arctic, North Atlantic and Pacific as a show of strength and as an intimidation tactic.
It also followed the March 14 crash of a US military surveillance drone into the Black Sea after it was intercepted by Russian jets, in the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the US since Russia invaded Ukraine.
‘On March 20, radar facilities of the air defence forces of the Western military district on duty over the Baltic Sea detected two air targets flying in the direction of the Russian Federation’s state border,’ the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.