Alwaght- Russia’s Su-27 fighter jet has intercepted a United State Air Force RC-135 spy plane above the Baltic Sea.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s press service said on Thursday that the US aircraft was detected while flying above the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, approaching Russia’s borders.
"In order to intercept the target, a Su-27 fighter jet of the on-duty air defense forces was scrambled," the ministry said.
The Russian fighter jet approached the US aircraft at a safe distance and "unidentified it as an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft."
Russian fighter jets regularly perform missions above the Baltic Sea to escort foreign military aircraft trying to approach the Russian border.
With tensions on the rise, Russia and NATO countries have increasingly scrambled their jets to intercept each other’s aircraft in recent years.
Plane spotters tracked the RC-135 as it lifted off from Britain to conduct a reconnaissance flight along the border of Russia’s Leningrad region on Tuesday.
“After the withdrawal of the foreign aircraft from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter safely returned to the airfield,” the Defense Ministry wrote early on Thursday.
