U.S., Russian Planes Have Perilously Close Encounters
WASHINGTON—U.S. and Russian military aircraft flew dangerously close to each other in three separate weekend incidents over the Mediterranean Sea, including one in which the planes passed within 5 feet, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The incidents, which occurred in international airspace Friday and Saturday, involved Russian Su-35 jet fighters crossing into the flight paths of U.S. Navy P-8A surveillance aircraft, the officials said.
The encounters come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Moscow’s buildup of military forces near Ukraine, with the Biden administration warning that a Russian attack could come any day.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces detected a U.S. submarine in Russian waters off the Kuril Islands in the Pacific on Saturday and used unspecified “appropriate means” to drive off the sub. A spokesman for the Navy’s Indo-Pacific Command denied that a U.S. sub was operating in Russian territorial waters.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-russian-aircraft-flew-perilously-close-to-each-other-amid-ukraine-tensions-11645032529
