Japan says Russian patrol plane ‘violates’ its airspace three times

 
INA-source
Japan has protested to the Kremlin after a Russian patrol plane entered its airspace three times, Defence Minister Minoru Kihara says.
 
“We confirmed today that a Russian Il-38 patrol aircraft has violated our airspace over our territorial waters north of Rebun Island, Hokkaido, on three occasions,” Kihara told reporters of Monday’s incidents.
 
Japanese F-15 and F-35 fighter jets warned the Russian military over the radio before firing flares during the third incursion, the defence minister added and said he has called on the Russian government through diplomatic channels to prevent a recurrence.
 
Kihara also noted that Monday’s incident was “the first publicly announced” airspace incursion by a Russian aircraft since June 2019 when a Tu-95 bomber entered Japanese airspace over the southern island of Okinawa and around the Izu Islands south of Tokyo.
 
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan “will refrain from giving any definitive information on the intent and purpose of this action, but the Russian military has been active in the vicinity of our country since the invasion of Ukraine”.
 
Source- aljazeera