Russian Strategic Bombers Spotted Patrolling Sea of Japan

Two Russian strategic bombers have flown over the Sea of Japan amid a spike in tensions in the region.

The Russian defense ministry released video that it said showed two Tupolev Tu-95MS planes taking off and landing. Cockpit footage showed one of the planes being escorted by a Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jet.

The defense ministry said in a statement that the planned 10-hour flight took place over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan, which is bordered by the Japanese archipelago, the Russian island of Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The body of water is known in South Korea as the East Sea.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.

The statement on Tuesday did not specify which airfield the test flight started and finished from or give details of where exactly over the body of water the route was. But social media users noted that such flights were usually a display of strength by Moscow.

"This comes just days after the U.S announced joint military exercise operations as a 'deterrent' to North Korea's perceived ramped-up aggression," posted entrepreneur and "citizen journalist" Mario Nawfal to 1.3 million followers on X, formerly Twitter. "Is a new war front brewing in Asia?"

On Tuesday, North Korea fired a medium-range ballistic missile, while South Korea, the United States and Japan conducted a joint-aerial exercise involving nuclear-capable B-52H bombers just hours later.

This comes less than two weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a solid-fuel engine test for a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

Moscow's relations with North Korea have been strengthening, with Pyongyang providing Russia with extensive military packages, including ballistic missiles and over three million artillery shells, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Monday.

Russian Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash, commander of long-range aviation said in a statement on the Russian defense ministry website that the flight "was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace."

"Long-range pilots regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Pacific Ocean," he added.

In March 2023 two Russian Tu-95MS aircraft flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was beginning a visit to Ukraine.

Japan, a key U.S. ally that has joined global sanctions against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, has a territorial dispute with Moscow over the Kuril Islands in the north Pacific, which dates back to the end of World War II.

In February 2023, North American air defense forces intercepted several Russian strategic bombers and fighter jets as they flew near Alaska in international air space.

Update 04/24/24, 1 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with the detail that the Sea of Japan is also known in South Korea as the East Sea.