WW3 fears as Putin rushes nuke bombers to UK’s doorstep on Christmas – NATO jets scrambled | World | News

Vladimir Putin sent Tu-95MS strategic nuclear bombers to threaten Britain’s north on a long-range Christmas flight over the Norwegian Sea. NATO had to scramble warplanes to track the massive Russian “Bears.”

The Christmas show of force took place at a time of high tension due to the war in Ukraine.

“Tu-95MS long-range bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a planned flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea,” Moscow’s defense ministry said. “The flight duration was more than seven hours.”

The long-range bombers were accompanied by Su-33 fighter jets of the Russian Navy.

The Russian statement, which did not specify which NATO air force captured the Tu-95MS aircraft, said, “Long-range bombers were accompanied by warplanes of foreign countries at certain stages of the route.”

The wargame flight appeared to be a deliberate attempt by Putin to move the West closer to Santa Claus’s flight path from the North Pole.

Russia, on the other hand, celebrates Christmas Day on January 7, according to the calendar used by the Orthodox Church.

The Norwegian Sea lies northeast of Scotland, between Norway and Iceland.

The planes, known as “Bears”, were first flown in the 1950s but remain the mainstay of Putin’s nuclear triad.

Super loud Tupolevs are the world’s only propeller-driven strategic bombers.

The planes were also used to launch devastating conventional missile attacks in Ukraine, causing large-scale death and destruction.