"The behavior of the air group was threatening": in Japan they react to the "overflight" of the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces of the island of Hokkaido
On March 11, 2020, a pair of Russian strategic missile carriers Tu-95MS, accompanied by an A-50 AWACS and Su-35 fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces, flew over the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, approaching the Japanese coast in some parts of the route. This flight was reacted very painfully in Japan.
According to the former chief of intelligence of the Japanese Air Force, Major General Eiji Suzuki for Shukan Gendai, despite the fact that the Russian Defense Ministry called the flight of the Russian Aerospace Forces near Japan planned, it was "provocative" and the behavior of the air group was "threatening."
According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, a group of Russian aircraft, led by two strategic missile carriers that could carry a nuclear weapon, moved along the route from Vladivostok in a southerly direction. The group approached Japanese airspace in the area of Okinoshima Island, flew around Hokkaido and flew over one of the islands of the Northern Territories (as the Kuril Islands belonging to the Russian Federation continue to be called in Japan) - Shikotan.
According to the general, with its flight around Hokkaido and over Shikotan, which is part of the so-called "Northern Territories", Russia demonstrated the strength and threat to Japan, and also showed that it is not going to concede sovereignty over the islands, which are primordially Japanese territory.
The air group's behavior was "threatening," says Eiji Suzuki; Russian aircraft could strike Japan at any moment. Of course, the Japanese F-15s and the country's air defense system that took off to intercept could defend the country, inflicting damage on Russian aircraft, but the very fact of "provocation" requires not only a military, but also a diplomatic response from the Japanese government, he concludes.
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