TOKYO: Japan mentioned it scrambled jets on Friday (Oct 24) to observe Russian warplanes, together with strategic bombers able to carrying nuclear weapons, which had flown alongside the sting of Japanese airspace up its coast.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, in an announcement reported by state-owned RIA information company, confirmed that its Tu-95 bombers had been escorted by jets from one other nation throughout what it described as a routine patrol flight over impartial waters.
The incident passed off hours earlier than Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged in her first speech to parliament since taking workplace to accelerate a defence buildup. Takaichi mentioned Russia’s navy actions, together with these of China and North Korea, had been posing a “critical concern”.
Japan’s Ministry of Defence launched a map displaying the flight path of the Russian planes off Japan’s west coast over the Sea of Japan. It mentioned the 2 Tu-95 bombers had been accompanied by two Su-35 fighters and had initially flown in the direction of Japan’s Sado Island earlier than turning northwards.
“Russia conducts each day navy operations round our nation whereas invading Ukraine – that is the fact,” Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote in an X put up.
Takaichi additionally touted Japan’s “particular world partnership” with Ukraine in an X put up, wherein she praised Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and its folks for his or her braveness to “arise in opposition to the aggression day-to-day”.
European international locations have accused Russia in latest weeks of repeated incursions with drones and jets, most lately on Thursday, when NATO-member Lithuania mentioned Russian fighters had briefly flown into its airspace. Moscow denied that its planes conducting workout routines close by had flown into Lithuanian airspace.
