Moscow. April 20. INTERFAX-German, Danish and Finnish Air Force fighters escorted Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers while flying over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"Two long-range Tu-160 strategic missile carriers performed a planned flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," the ministry said on Tuesday.
"At certain stages of the route, Russian strategic missile carriers were accompanied by Eurofighter Typhoon fighters of the German Air Force, F-16 of the Danish Air Force, F-18 of the Finnish Air Force," the report says.
According to the military, the flight duration was about eight hours. From the Russian side, the missile carriers were accompanied by the crews of the Su-35S of the Aerospace Forces and the Su-27 of the Naval Aviation of the Navy.
"All flights of aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces are carried out in strict accordance with the international rules for the use of airspace," the Ministry stressed.
On March 29, the Russian Defense Ministry reported an eight-hour flight of two Tu-160s over the neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas. The aircraft were escorted by MiG-31 interceptors.
According to the Ministry, long-range aviation crews regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black and Baltic Seas, and the Pacific Ocean.
In November 2017, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov, said that Russia had increased the intensity of strategic aviation flights to the level that was under the USSR.
