Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday.
From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added.
Photo: AFP
The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said.
“In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets on an emergency basis,” the statement said.
The last time Russian military aircraft circled Japan was in 2019, the official said, but that incident involved bombers that did enter the nation’s airspace.
Earlier this week, Russian and Chinese warships began joint drills in the Sea of Japan.
The drills are part of a major naval exercise that Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as the largest of its kind in three decades.
Russia and China have ramped up military cooperation in recent years, with both railing against what they see as the US domination of global affairs.
They declared a “no limits” partnership shortly before Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine in 2022.
Japan also scrambled fighter jets late last month when a Chinese military aircraft “violated” its airspace, the ministry said.
The two-minute incursion into Japanese airspace by the Y-9 surveillance aircraft was the first ever by a Chinese military plane, Japanese media reported at the time.
Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, relations have deteriorated sharply between Japan and Russia, which both claim the Kuril Islands — known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
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