UK requested permission for spyplane to fly over Russia

Russia’s Defence Ministry has said Britain had requested permission for its RC-135 spy plane to fly over Russia, a move it termed “a deliberate provocation”.

There was no immediate response from Britain’s Ministry of Defence to a Reuters news agency request for comment.

The Russian ministry said that Russia’s airforce had been tasked with preventing any violations of Russian airspace.

• Britain has submitted a request for a flight by its reconnaissance plane along a route lying through Russia’s airspace. The Aerospace Force has been ordered to prevent this provocation, Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Britain has submitted a flight plan for a flight by its reconnaissance plane RC-135 along a route that lies over Russian territory. We regard this as an intentional provocation," the Defense Ministry said. "Russia’s Aerospace Force has been tasked to prevent a violation of Russia’s airspace. All likely effects of this intentional provocation will rest exclusively on the British side."

On Monday, the Defense Ministry said that Britain’s radio-technical reconnaissance and radio-electronic warfare plane RC-135 had violated Russia’s state border near Cape Svyatoy Nos over the Barents Sea. Russia’s MiG-31M fighter forced the plane out of Russia’s airspace.