The United States on Monday, October 18, took to the air two F-16 fighter jets to intercept a pair of Russian bombers flying close to the border in Alaska.
This was announced by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The Russian Tu-95s did not enter the sovereign airspace of either Canada or the US, but were in the air defense recognition zone, in which any aircraft is identified and tracked for security purposes.
At the same time, the command emphasized that the actions of the Russian planes "did not look like a threat or a provocation."
"NORAD tracks and identifies foreign military aircraft that enter the air defense zone, regularly monitors the movement of foreign aircraft and, if necessary, escorts them out of the air defense identification zone," the communique said.