Russian Military Reports Scrambling Jets Eight Times to Chase Away Spy Planes

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia’s fighter jets were scrambled eight times over the past week to intercept foreign planes, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

Fourteen foreign aircraft approached the Russian airspace during that period, according to an infographic in the ministry-linked Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper. None of them trespassed.

At the beginning of this month, several media reported that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet has intercepted a US navy airplane in the Baltic Sea. According to the Fox New, the US Navy claimed that the Russian jet's action was "unprofessional," but "safe".

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that it had to scramble its fighter jets seven times at the beginning of March, to intercept foreign planes close to its borders.

The number of air incidents involving Russian and NATO planes has increased since 2014 as a result of the growing presence of the US-led military bloc's forces near Russian western border following the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis.