Risk of “direct” confrontation, “operational response”… why Russia pushed back American bombers in the Arctic ?

Un B-52H de l'US Air Force. (illustration) MAXPPP – SOUTH KOREAN DEFENSE MINISTRY/HANDOUT

the essential Russia said on Sunday it had dispatched fighter jets to prevent two US strategic bombers from crossing its border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The United States military regularly conducts flights over international waters, operations which it maintains are conducted in neutral airspace and in accordance with international law. But Moscow has responded more aggressively to the exercises in recent months, warning in June that US drone flights over the Black Sea risked leading to a direct military confrontation. quot;.

Risk of "direct confrontation"

The Russian Defense Ministry said it dispatched fighter jets to intercept an air target approaching the border of the Russian Federation Russia". "Russian fighter crews identified the aerial target as two US Air Force B-52H strategic bombers", he added.

"As the Russian fighters approached, the American strategic bombers corrected their flight path, moving away and then turning away from the Russian border' quot;, he added. In June, Moscow accused the United States of using its reconnaissance drone flights over the neutral waters of the Black Sea to help Ukraine strike the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia .

He said these flights increased the risk of "direct confrontation" between the&# 39;NATO and Russia, and that its army had been instructed to prepare an operational response .

Russia has already reported similar incidents when some of its aircraft were confronted by military planes from NATO countries flying near its border, in a context of high tensions linked to the war in Ukraine.