Typhoon fighter jets have “intercepted and escorted” four Russian Bear aircraft “out of the UK’s area of interest”, the RAF has said.
The Typhoons were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray to intercept the unidentified aircraft approaching the UK.
A Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire supported them.
“The Russian aircraft types were two Tu-95 Bear H and two Tu-142 Bear F,” the service said in a statement.
“Our Typhoon fighters escorted the Russian aircraft out of the UK’s area of interest. At no time did the Russian bombers enter UK sovereign airspace.”
The RAF regularly responds to UK airspace incursions.
Last November, UK aircraft intercepted Russian nuclear bombers over the North Sea.
Two Russian Tu-160 'White Swan' bombers entered 'the UK area of interest’ at the time.
They approached Dutch airspace before being intercepted and escorted by RAF jets.
This comes after Boris Johnson claimed there is an imminent threat of a Russian invasion in the Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv.
He said: “Someone said were we exaggerating the threat; that the US and UK are trying to big this up.
“That’s not the intelligence we are seeing. It’s a clear and present danger.”
