MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers spent eight hours patrolling the neutral waters of the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
"The flight was executed in strict accordance with international rules on the use of airspace," the commander of Russia's long-range aviation, Sergei Kobylash, was quoted by the ministry as saying.
"Long-range aviation pilots regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic [and] the North Atlantic, the Black and Baltic Seas, [and] the Pacific Ocean," Kobylash said.
The Tu-160s were accompanied by Sukhoi Su-35 fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the ministry said.
Tu-160 and Tu-95MC strategic bombers and Tu-22M3 long-range bombers are part of the Aerospace Forces' long-range aviation, whose aircraft make up the air component of Russia's nuclear triad, but they can also conduct strikes using conventional air-to-surface missiles, including cruise missiles.
In an interview with the Red Star newspaper last December, Kobylash announced that long-range aviation had been reinforced with a MiG-31 regiment armed with Kinzhal missiles.