The United States scrambled fighter jets to escort four Russian nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers as they carried out a planned flight near the U.S. border, the RIA news agency cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying.

The Russian aircraft carried out an 11-hour flight over neutral waters of the Chukotsk, Bering, and Okhotsk Seas as well as the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, the ministry was quoted as saying on Wednesday.