Four flights made over Pacific Ocean as part of sudden check - ministry
MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) - Strategic aviation aircraft have patrolled Russian borders over the Pacific Ocean four times as part of a sudden check, the Russian Defense Ministry's press service reported.
"The route of the flights lied over the domestic waters of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk and the neutral waters of the Pacific Ocean north of the Japanese archipelago," the press service said in a statement obtained by Interfax.
Three more Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers made flights in order to reveal and check the air defense systems of the Eastern Military District off the island of Sakhalin and the Sea of Japan, it reads.
Every flight was carried out in strict compliance with the international rules of using airspace over neutral waters and did not violate the borders of other states.
More than 160,000 soldiers, 5,000 tanks and armored personnel carriers, 160 aircraft and helicopters and 70 ships are involved in the sudden check that started on July 13 and will end on July 20.