LONDON // Britain scrambled Typhoon fighter jets to intercept two Russian long-range bombers near UK airspace, the ministry of defence said on Tuesday.
It came the same day the ministry said the Royal Navy’s HMS Argyll was monitoring three Russian ships including a destroyer that had entered the English Channel while returning from the Mediterranean.
Britain hosted military exercise off the coast of Scotland on Tuesday, involving more than 50 warships and submarines and 13,000 personnel from 14 countries.
Intercepts of Russian aircraft by Nato have increased over the last year amid heightened tensions between the West and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
“The Russian aircraft are being escorted by the RAF [Royal Air Force] in the UK area of interest,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
In January, Britain summoned the Russian ambassador to explain a similar episode, when after Tupolev Tu-95 bombers, known as Russian “bears”, flew over the English Channel, forcing British authorities to reroute civil aircraft.
The ministry did not give the location of Tuesday’s interception, which comes just three weeks before a knife-edge election in which defence policy has been an issue. The incidents come amid tense relations between London and Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine and the inquiry into the death of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
“MOD can confirm 3 Russian ships being monitored by @RoyalNavy HMS Argyll through Channel. No exercises seen,” the ministry said on its Twitter feed.
“Russian Udaloy class destroyer Severomorsk returning from Mediterranean with tanker and support ship. Due to leave Channel later.”
A group of Russian warships led by the naval destroyer Severomorsk is travelling through the English Channel to take part in anti-submarine and anti-aircraft drills in the North Atlantic, the Interfax news service reported earlier, citing the press service of the Northern Fleet.
The Severomorsk, an anti-submarine destroyer, was among four ships which passed through the Channel in November although Nato and French authorities denied Russian reports that a squadron of Russian warships had conducted military exercises there.
A Russian warship was also tracked through the Channel in February while the previous month.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered a series of snap military drills, including for the country’s strategic nuclear forces, in recent weeks amid tensions with the US and the European Union over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March last year and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
A Russian corvette fired rounds during anti-submarine exercises in the Baltic Sea, Interfax reported on Tuesday.
* Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg