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South Korea's military said earlier that it scrambled fighter jets
as two Chinese and six Russian warplanes entered its air defence
zone.
Russia's defence ministry said that "at certain stages of the route,
strategic missile carriers were accompanied by fighters of foreign
states."
"An air group consisting of Tu-95MC strategic missile carriers of
the Russian Aerospace Forces and strategic bombers XIAN H-6K of the
PLA Air Force carried out air patrols over the waters of the
Japanese and East China Seas," the ministry said.
It said Russian and Chinese aircraft "acted strictly in accordance
with the provisions of international law" and that no foreign
airspace was violated.
It was the first time that Russia and Chinese military aircraft
landed in each other's airfields as part of a joint air patrol, the
ministry said.
The Tupolev Tu-95, known by NATO as "Bear", along with the Tu-160,
is the backbone of Russia's long-range air attack nuclear forces. It
was designed to drop nuclear bombs on the United States in the Cold
War.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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