The Royal Air Force (RAF) scrambled Typhoon jets to escort two Russian military bombers away from UK air space on Wednesday afternoon.
The Typhoons, from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, were scrambled after the Russian bombers were spotted off the Cornish coast.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the planes never entered UK airspace, but the Tyhoons escorted them until they left “the UK area of interest”.
An MoD spokesperson said:
“RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft were launched yesterday after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace. The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace.”
The incident, which posed no threat to the UK, comes after UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned of the threat Russia poses to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. He cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use similar undercover military and propaganda tactics to destabilise the countries as he has done in Ukraine and Crimea.
