Russian fighter intercepted two American bombers near the border

Footage captured from a Russian Su-35 aircraft shows it flying alongside one of two massive B-52 Stratofortress in close proximity to Russian airspace, in what is the first clash between the parties since the drone collision.

Giant planes headed over the Baltic Sea to Estonia, a NATO member, on the border with Russiabefore heading back west.

St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, is located on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

This comes as NATO jets closely watched Russian government and military aircraft off the coast of Estonia last week as they flew into the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.

Before the B-52s were joined by Moscow’s jets over the international waters of the Baltic Sea, the photo shows them being escorted by Polish F-16 fighters. Sun.

In the latest incident, the Russian Defense Ministry said its radar detected two targets that were identified as US Air Force B-52H bombers, state news agency TASS reported.

The department said that the Su-35 fighter took off to prevent violation of the border.

After that, “the foreign military aircraft departed from the state border of the Russian Federation, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield.”

The flight of the Su-35 strictly complied with international rules for the use of airspace during the incident on Monday, the ministry added.

“Violation of the state border of the Russian Federation is not allowed,” the message says.

The Russians have not disclosed where the Su-35s came from, but some are known to be based in Kaliningrad.

It is not known if the American planes actually carried any nuclear weapons.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed how one B-52 took off from a base in Spain, flew over Sweden, and then entered international airspace, where it was intercepted.

The aircraft proceeded into Estonian airspace before returning over the Baltic Sea.

On March 15, British and German aircraft intercepted a Russian aircraft near the Estonian border. Two countries are currently patrolling the skies of the former Soviet state and now a member of NATO.

The Russian tanker aircraft did not submit its flight plan to the Estonian air traffic control service. However, the Russian aircraft did not enter Estonian airspace.

The interception of Russian aircraft near state borders is common, even at some distance from Russia itself.

But last week, a Russian Su-27 jet crashed into the propeller of an MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to crash into the sea.

The drone was shot down on Tuesday while flying near Russian-occupied Crimea and the Ukrainian front line.

Prior to the collision, the two Su-27s “leaked fuel and flew in front of the MQ-9” in a “reckless” and “unprofessional” manner, according to the US military.

Footage of the moment was released by US European Command..

The footage shows one of the Russian fighter jets approaching the drone and then flying over it, dumping fuel on it.

Senior US officials have been worried for months that any incident over the Black Sea could lead to misunderstanding and confrontation.

The Russians said the drone veered violently and crashed into the water after fighter jets lifted it into the air to intercept it near Crimea.

Moscow denied that its warplanes made contact with the drone and insisted they did not fire their weapons to shoot down the drone, which would have been an act of war.

The area has seen intense NATO military action and is close to the front line of the Ukrainian war.

The Russians have reportedly claimed to have won a race to retrieve a drone from a depth of 3,000 feet under the Black Sea.

Shooting down the drone is part of an increasingly dangerous Russian pattern that experts fear could spark a wider conflict.

US researchers at the RAND Corporation have compiled a report detailing hundreds of such incidents in recent years, which they refer to as “forced alarms.”

This is to send a signal to US and other NATO aircraft and ships through “unsafe and unprofessional” behavior as Russian aircraft are increasingly armed.

Originally published as Russian fighter intercepted two American bombers near the border