An armed Russian fighter flew near the US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, reported by The Fox News on Monday with a reference to two U.S. officials.
According to the officials, it was a Russian Su-27 fighter that was equipped with missiles. According to them, the rapprochement occurred with the American RC-135 aircraft and the distance between the planes was supposedly about 5 feet.
According to the other official, the behavior of the Russian aircraft was "provocative" and was flying "erratically".
#BREAKING: U.S. officials say an armed Russian jet flew within 5 feet of a U.S. recon jet on Monday pic.twitter.com/cGR5V263uq
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) June 20, 2017
35 interactions between U.S. and Russian jets and warships
According to the FOXNews, since June 2, over 35 so-called interactions between American and Russian military aircraft and warships have been recorded in the Baltic Sea region. However, as one American official said, "this incident is most noteworthy, as the US military considered it " unsafe. "
Before the day of the incident, the Russian Defense Ministry said it would treat any US aircraft as a potential target flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria, following the shoot-down of a Syrian jet by the US Navy jet that was targeting US aligned aircrafts.
Footage of Russian fighter jet buzzing American military plane over the Baltic Sea, courtesy of Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/285lCKS13S
— Dan Peleschuk (@dpeleschuk) June 20, 2017
For decades, the Russian military has supported Bashar Assad, the President of Syria and deployed dozens of helicopter gunships and fighter jets to shore up the Syrian boarder in September 2015.
In February, Russian jets buzzed the US Navy missile destroyer in the Black Sea, while five hundred US Army soldiers arrived in a port near to Romania. After two months USS Porter fired TomaHawk cruise missiles into the Syrian airbase that was backed by the Russian army.
Russia and NATO countries' military aircraft rapprochement
In June, Russia and NATO countries reported several instances of rapprochement of their military aircraft. On June 19, the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense informed that during the week of June 12-18, the country's fighter jets flew nine times to support 32 Russian aircraft. Before that, on June 15, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian missile carriers had been escorted by Danish and Swedish fighters. The Russian Su-27 also intercepted the US Air Force B-52 bomber and the long-range B-1 bomber.
From 1 to 16 June, the NATO annual BALTOPS exercise took place in the Baltic Sea, with the participation of military personnel from 14 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States; Two partners of NATO, Finland and Sweden.
