Russian fighter jets confront US strategic bombers over the Baltic Sea for another two days

input2023.05.26 07:21
correction2023.05.26 07:21

TASS News Agency and AFP News reported that Russian fighter jets confronted US strategic bombers over the Baltic Sea again in two days.

The Russian Ministry of Defense released a statement on the 25th (local time) and said that two US Air Force B-1B strategic bombers approached Russian airspace from the Baltic Sea that day and scrambled fighters.

“Two air targets approaching the border of the Russian Federation were detected, and Sukhoi (SU)-35S and SU-27P fighters from the Western Military District scrambled to prevent border incursions,” the statement said.

The fighters confirmed that the approaching plane was a U.S. strategic bomber, escorted it, turned its nose, and returned to base, the statement added.

The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that there was no actual invasion of the airspace by the US strategic bombers, and that these operations were carried out in strict compliance with international laws related to the use of airspace.

This is the second time this week that Russian fighter jets and US strategic bombers have confronted each other in the Baltic Sea.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on the 23rd that it had detected two B-1Bs approaching Russian airspace over the Baltic Sea and sent fighter jets to sortie.

Prior to this, on March 20 of this year, Russia also flew Sukhoi-35 fighter jets to block the approach of the US strategic bomber B52H.

The Baltic Sea is an inland sea located between Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe and is bordered by nine countries: Sweden, Finland, Russia, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Among them, the area where Russia meets the Baltic Sea is only a small part of the area around St. Petersburg.

However, since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year, it has shown behaviors that raise tensions, such as making emergency sorties or threatening flights in response to aircraft belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) near its own airspace, including over the Baltic Sea. come.

/yunhap news