Moscow, 11 April: Eight violations of Russian airspace have been recorded since the beginning of 2003, air force commander-in-chief, Col-Gen Vladimir Mikhaylov said today.
Mikhaylov spoke at a meeting dedicated to Day of the Air Defence Troops.
"More than 12,000 air defence servicemen are on daily duty. Since the beginning of 2003, they have tracked more than 40,000 airborne objects, including 21,000 foreign flights, of which 217 were combat aircraft and 82 spy planes. Eight breaches of Russia's airspace have been reported since the
start of the year," he said.
Commenting on flights by US U-2 spy-planes over Georgia near the Russian border, Mikhaylov said that if these airplanes had penetrated Russian airspace, they would have been eliminated.
"We have been keeping an eye on these US flights and have sent our fighters to escort them. Any such US plane would have been destroyed if it had violated Russian airspace," he said.
"In the absence of Russian fighters, a U-2 was travelling as close as 25-30 km from the Russian border during its first flight. However, once a Russian Su-27 fighter was in the air, the U-2's route was already at a distance of 50-60 km from the border," Mikhaylov noted.
"Although we did not switch on our radar, the US spy plane moved farther from the border for fear of crossing it," the commander said.