Japan scrambles jets after nuclear-capable Russian bombers fly nearby

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TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan said it scrambled jets on Friday to monitor Russian warplanes, including strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, which had flown along the edge of Japanese airspace up its coast.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, in a statement reported by state-owned RIA news agency, confirmed that its Tu-95 bombers had been escorted by jets from another country during what it described as a routine patrol flight over neutral waters.

The incident took place hours before Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, pledged in her first speech to parliament since taking office to accelerate a defence buildup. Takaichi said Russia’s military activities, along with those of China and North Korea, were posing a “serious concern”.

Japan’s Ministry of Defence released a map showing the flight path of the Russian planes off Japan’s west coast over the Sea of Japan. It said the two Tu-95 bombers were accompanied by two Su-35 fighters and had initially flown towards Japan’s Sado Island before turning northwards.

“Russia conducts daily military operations around our country while invading Ukraine – this is the reality,” Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote in an X post.

Takaichi also touted Japan’s “special global partnership” with Ukraine in an X post, in which she praised Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and its people for their courage to “stand up against the aggression day by day”.

European countries have accused Russia in recent weeks of repeated incursions with drones and jets, most recently on Thursday, when NATO-member Lithuania said Russian fighters had briefly flown into its airspace. Moscow denied that its planes conducting exercises nearby had flown into Lithuanian airspace.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya in TokyoEditing by Peter Graff)