Is Russia flying NUCLEAR missiles over the Channel? Fears over Putin’s jets in UK airspace

Last February, two Tu-95 bombers intercepted over the Channel were found to be carrying a nuclear missile designed to destroy Trident submarines.

Cockpit conservations confirming the bomber’s nuclear payload were intercepted by a Norwegian military listening post and passed to the Ministry of Defence.

Russia on alert as US trains Ukraine’s troops

Nato co-operation with Kiev set to expand despite Kremlin warnings

To the crunch of grenades and crackle of machine-gun fire, United States paratroopers are helping members of Ukraine’s national guard to better defend the country’s east from separatist militants armed by Russia and assisted by its troops.

The vast Yavoriv firing range between the city of Lviv and the Polish border hosts training that Ukraine says is vital to its security and sovereignty, but which Moscow warns will only deepen the country’s conflict and the rift between Russia and the West.

What’s Putin’s plan? Russian jet ‘shot flares at Swedish plane’

SWEDEN’S top military commander says Russian fighter pilots are behaving in an increasingly aggressive manner in northern Europe, flying dangerously close to Swedish air force jets and in some cases even releasing flares at them.

Supreme Commander Sverker Goransson told a seminar on the Swedish island of Gotland on Monday that the Russians are breaking the normal rules of conduct for when military aircraft meet in the air.

Two Russian military aircraft intercepted by RAF Typhoons over the Baltic Sea

Two Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without sharing a flight plan have been intercepted and shadowed by RAF Tycoons. [sic]

The Typhoons were scrambled yesterday from the Amari Air base in Estonia after the Russian aircraft approached Baltic airspace.

RAF jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers

 

A number of RAF jets have been scrambled to intercept two Russian long-range bombers off northern Scotland, the latest in a series of provocative operations by the country’s air force.

As tensions between Nato and Russia have worsened over the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has significantly increased the number of military flights probing Nato airspace. The number of interceptions over the Baltic States trebled last year and Nato members including Britain have stepped up air policing support in the area.

The RAF Typhoons were operating under a Nato command.

Japan Scrambles Fighter Jets to Track Russian Bombers

From the state-run Russian propaganda outlet, RIA Novosti:

TOKYO, July 16 (RIA Novosti) – Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force had to scramble fighter jets in response to flights by Russian military aircraft near Japanese airspace and over the disputed Kuril Islands on Monday, local media reported.

Two Tu-95 Bear bombers flew over the Sea of Japan moving from the Korean Peninsula, and proceeded along the Japanese archipelago to the north of Hokkaido. Another plane, the IL-20, flew over the Kuril Islands, NHK television said late Monday citing the Defense Ministry.

Cyprus considering Russian military use of airbase, port facilities

LARNARCA, Cyprus, June 24 (UPI) — Financially strapped Cyprus is looking at allowing Russian military aircraft to use an airbase in Paphos, the country’s defense minister said this weekend.

Cypriot Defense Minister Fotis Fotiu told the Nicosia daily Fileleftheros the country was “studying the possibility of providing in certain cases” the use of the Andreas Papandreou Air Force Base for Russian military aircraft.