RAF jets were buzzed by Russian war planes in a dramatic showdown over the Black Sea today, it was claimed.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that it scrambled one of its Su-30 fighters after detecting ‘three air targets’ including two RAF Typhoon fighters near its border with war-torn Ukraine.
Tensions between Vladimir Putin’s regime and the West have been at a simmering point since the Kremlin launched its lawless and barbaric invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
The Kremlin has accused Western powers of ‘direct involvement’ in Ukraine, after a purported leak of a phone call between German military officials seemingly confirmed the presence of British troops on the ground in the nation.
Kyiv’s forces today stepped up attacks behind Russian lines with the apparent killing of a Russian election official in a car bomb and a drone assault on a metals plant.
Deadly Russian strikes also rocked the Ukrainian port city of Odesa during a visit by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was holding talks there with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a statement, Russia’s MoD said: ‘Russian air traffic control over the Black Sea detected three air targets approaching the State border of the Russian Federation today.
RAF jets were buzzed by Russian war planes over the Black Sea, Moscow has said
A British Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft flies at RAF Coningsby
‘To prevent violation of the State Border of the Russian Federation, a Su-30 fighter from the air defence forces on duty was scrambled.
‘The Russian fighter crew identified the air targets as an RC-135 electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft and two RAF Typhoon multi-role fighters.
‘As the Russian fighter approached, the foreign military aircraft made a turn away from the State border of the Russian Federation. The Russian plane returned safely to its home airfield. There was no violation of the State Border of the Russian Federation.
‘The flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace over neutral waters, without crossing air routes or dangerously approaching aircraft of a foreign state.’
MailOnline has contacted Britain’s Ministry of Defence for further information.
It comes as Russia and Ukraine have increased their aerial attacks as Moscow’s troops advance on the front lines and Kyiv faces a shortage of manpower and weapons.
‘We heard the sound of sirens and explosions that took place near us. We did not have time to get to a shelter. It is a very intense experience,’ Mitsotakis said through a translator in Odesa.
It comes as astonishing footage, filmed by a GoPro camera, shows the Russian crew of the Caesar Kunikov large landing ship fighting its last battle with Ukrainian marine drones off the coast of Crimea
Explosions rang out around them as the drones one by one slammed into the ship’s hull and lit up the night sky
The warship was lost on February 14, but the footage has only just been released by Russian Telegram channel FighterBomber
Ukraine’s navy told AFP the attack on port infrastructure killed five people and left an unspecified number wounded.
Spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk confirmed the strike came as the Greek delegation was visiting the port with Zelensky.
Russian forces ‘don’t care whether (targets) are military or civilians, whoever they are, whether they are international guests, these people don’t care,’ Zelensky said.
The Russian defence ministry claimed a strike on a ‘hangar in a commercial port area of Odesa in which crewless cutters were being prepared for combat use by the Ukrainian armed forces’.
The hit comes just days after 12 people, including five children, were killed when a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the Black Sea city, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians for weeks.
And extraordinary new footage revealed the sheer terror faced by Russian sailors aboard a large landing ship sunk by Ukrainian kamikaze sea drones last month.
It comes as extraordinary new footage revealed the sheer terror faced by Russian sailors aboard a large landing ship sunk by Ukrainian kamikaze sea drones last month.
A GoPro video, taken by sailors aboard the doomed Caesar Kunikov military vessel, showed in shocking detail how the navy men desperately tried to fight off the oncoming drones in an intense 20-minute sea battle before their vessel was destroyed in a fiery explosion.
The warship was lost on February 14, but the footage has only just been released by Russian Telegram channel FighterBomber.
The hellish, chaotic scene saw a small group of seamen unloading their weapons into the murky water. Explosions rang out around them as the drones one by one slammed into the ship’s hull and lit up the night sky.
But the clip also highlights how the conflict in Ukraine and Kyiv’s deployment of kamikaze sea-based drones have changed the face of naval warfare.
Despite the crew letting loose thousands of rounds at the oncoming threat, the Russian battleship was powerless to defend against a flotilla of high-speed, high-explosive MAGURA V5 drones controlled by operators hundreds of miles away.
No official death toll has emerged but local reports suggest several crew members were lost as the Caesar Kunikov sank.
An anonymous surviving crew member – seeking to dispute Russian claims that the sailors had been ‘cowards’ and failed in their duty – said his GoPro footage showed they ‘repelled the attack of [marine drones] with all available forces and means’ in the fierce sea battle.
He said there were ten drones but Ukraine has only admitted to sending five.
