Moment Russian and American fighter jets come eye to eye
Moscow has since claimed that 'all flights of the Russian Aerospace Forces are carried out in strict compliance with international rules of airspace use'.
US and Russian warplanes came face to face in the sky after Putin sent two Tu-95MS nuclear bombers near the coast of Alaska.
The aerial encounter came amid fury in Moscow as the US resuming major arms supplies to Ukraine as part of a $61 billion package of war aid.
The Russian defence minister admitted hulking their strategic bombers ‘near the coast of Alaska’ on an 11 hour flight over the Bering Sea.
Moscow said ‘at certain stages the missile carriers were accompanied by fighter jets of foreign countries’.
It is unclear which other foreign state could have sent its aircraft to monitor the Russian mission – the other closest Western country would be Canada.
Now, video footage has shown the moment US and Russian pilots came eye to eye during the flight.
In footage from the Russian Defence Ministry a warplane from the Alaska Air National Guard, part of the United States Air Force, is visible marked with the letters AK and the number 304 on its tail fin.
Moscow has since claimed that ‘all flights of the Russian Aerospace Forces are carried out in strict compliance with international rules of airspace use’.
The Russian Defence Ministry said: ‘Two Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces long-range aviation carried out a scheduled flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Bering Sea near the western coast of Alaska.’
The Tu-95 fleet is an integral part of Russia’s nuclear armoury, but the planes have been also used to launch devastating conventional missile strikes causing large-scale destruction in Ukraine.
The Soviet-era Tu-95s first flew some 70 years ago but remain a mainstay of the Russian nuclear force.
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