UK's RAF scrambles Typhoon jets in response to Russian aircraft for second day

The jets were sent out from an airbase in Scotland on Thursday morning.

The RAF scrambled Typhoon jets in response to unknown aircraft on Thursday morning. Photo: Bloomberg

Britain’s Royal Air Force has scrambled Typhoon jets for the second time this week after Russian aircraft approached UK airspace.

The jets were launched from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, in response to aircraft approaching what an RAF spokesman described as a UK “area of interest”.

The spokesman confirmed that the Typhoons were been joined by a Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

"Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters based at RAF Lossiemouth supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton were scrambled today against aircraft approaching the UK area of interest," a Royal Air Force spokesperson said.

"Subsequently we intercepted and escorted two Russian Tu-95 Bear F aircraft."

On Wednesday RAF pilots responded to four Russian strategic bombers approaching the UK’s “area of interest”.

The bombers were “intercepted and escorted”, a spokesman said, and at no point did they enter UK airspace.

Tensions between the West and Russia have reached fever pitch over the Ukraine crisis.

This week Russia mocked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he paid a visit to Kiev.

The Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said British diplomacy is “absolutely worthless”.

“There is always room for diplomacy, but frankly we don’t trust British diplomacy. I think in recent years British diplomacy has shown that it is absolutely worthless in such issues, I am sorry to say,” he told Sky News.

“I really don’t want to offend anybody, especially my good friends, British diplomats, but really, the results are nothing to boast about.”

He added: “The hysteria just does not stop. What was happening is only in the heads of Western politicians and not on the ground.”