RAF jets intercept Russian nuclear bombers over North Sea

RAF fighter jets have been sent to intercept two Russian nuclear bombers over the North Sea after British troops were deployed at the Polish border amid a Kremlin-backed migrant crisis. 

The Typhoons were scrambled from Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, Lincolnshire, along with a refuelling jet from Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on Friday.

The two Russian Tu-160 ‘White Swan’ bombers entered ‘the UK area of interest,’ the ministry of defence confirmed, without giving further details.

Radar radar data suggested the Kremlin warplanes were retreating north into international airspace over the North Sea at around 12.45pm. 

The incursion comes with Europe at battle stations: Vladimir Putin is backing a ‘hybrid war’ using migrants to sow chaos at Poland’s border and he has deployed tens of thousands of troops to the border with Ukraine. 

The CIA last night warned European officials to brace for a Russian invasion of Ukraine similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crima.

British Royal Engineers were today deployed along the Polish frontier with Kremlin-backed Belarus to carry out ‘reconnaissance’ with their NATO allies. 

Flight tracking data showed an RAF Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton was sent to shadow the incident over the North Sea

Radar showed a NATO warplane was dispatched from Cologne and circled around the Norwegian coast before heading back to Germany.

A Typhoon fighter jet over RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire (file photo)

A Russian Tu-160 (the closer jet) over Belarusian airspace today

‘Our soldiers will co-operate in strengthening the fence of the Polish-Belarusian border,’ Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said.

The Ministry of Defence said: ‘A small team of UK Armed Forces personnel have deployed following an agreement with the Polish Government to explore how we can provide engineering support to address the ongoing situation at the Belarus border.’  

As military hardware massed on Ukraine’s eastern front, the Kremlin today announced it was sending paratroopers to the Belarus-Poland frontier for snap drills just 30 miles from where the migrants are camped.

‘A unit of Russian paratroopers will practise a landing in an unknown territory in the Hrodna region of Belarus on November 12 as part of drills to inspect combat readiness of the paratrooper forces,’ the Russian defence ministry said.

Russian nuclear bombers were also flying over Belarus for a third day running as Putin remained firmly behind Lukashenko.  

The Royal Netherlands Air Force said that it had dispatched two F-16 fighters to intercept the bombers before handing over to allies from the RAF. 

Flight tracking data showed a NATO warplane was dispatched from Cologne and circled around the Norwegian coast before heading back to Germany.   

An RAF spokesman said: ‘Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth & Coningsby, supported by a Voyager Tanker from RAF Brize Norton, have been launched against an unidentified aircraft approaching the UK area of interest.

‘We will not be offering any additional detail on this ongoing operation until complete.’