Russian Radars Detect Six NATO Reconnaissance Flights Over Black Sea

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian radars have detected six flights by NATO reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea in the past 24 hours, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

"The intensity of NATO aerial reconnaissance near Russia's borders in the Black Sea continues to grow. Over the past day, the radar systems of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Russian aerospace forces detected and escorted six flights by reconnaissance aircraft of NATO countries in the airspace over the Black Sea", the ministry told reporters.

Moscow has repeatedly slammed NATO's activities in the Black Sea as a provocation to spur tensions and pursue a policy of containment of Russia. President Vladimir Putin recently called them "destabilising" and "dangerous", while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that by sending their vessels to the area, the US is trying to push coastal countries toward confrontational policies.