UK denies Moscow's claims RAF plane entered Russian airspace

UK’s armed forces RAF on Tuesday accused a Russian fighter jet of making an “unsafe close pass” while also violating its airspace. This came as Russia accused the UK of a breach of its airspace in a “deliberate provocation” saying that an RAF RC-135W ‘Rivet Joint’ surveillance aircraft breached its border in the Brent Sea and that Russian Air Force VKS had to chase the fighter jet off. 

Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied the allegations that its surveillance aircraft made an incursion over the Barents Sea, refuting Russian MoD's claims. Britain said that it had sent a prior notice about the planned flight of an RC-135 reconnaissance plane along a route that overlaps with the Russian territory denying that there was an "intentional" provocative violation of Moscow's airspace. 

“We regard this action as a deliberate provocation,” Russia's Ministry of Defense said. The Russian air force had been “given the task to prevent the violation of the Russian border," it continued. 

“All possible consequences of this deliberate provocation will lie entirely with the British side,” the Russian MoD warned without informing where exactly the British flight was planned for or breached.

Russian MIG-31 intercepted UK plane

Moscow had also a day earlier claimed that it had scrambled a Russian MIG-31 to intercept the plane, which it crossed into its airspace near the remote Arctic headland of Svyatoi Nos. Russia's Air Force chased off a Royal Air Force spy plane RRR7255 that violated Russian airspace in the Barents Sea near Murmansk, it had announced. These claims could not be verified independently.  

Russian Defense Ministry stated in an update that it dispatched a MiG-31 interceptor to escort the RC-135 surveillance jet near Cape Svyatoy Nos, located around the military bases of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet. "MiG-31BM interceptor on duty with the border air patrol identified the aircraft and compelled it to stop its violation of Russian airspace", Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed. Moscow's MoD identified that the UK's fighter jet had violated airspace at Svyatoy Nos, a cape on the Kola Peninsula, east of Murmansk in western Russia. The FlightRadar data showed a Royal Air Force RC-135 flying off the coast of Murmansk, and Russia's MoD gave no further details about how the UK jet entered its airspace.