On the way, the American Stratofortress planes flew above the Barents Sea to point-blank cruise missile range of the main air base used by Russia for its own bomber strikes against Ukraine, Stefan Korshak writes at the Kyiv Post.

The route of flight taken by the American long-range strike aircraft paralleled almost the entire eastern frontier of NATO territory, from the Barents Sea north of Finland to the Black Sea.

• Although remaining in international airspace, the US heavies made a provocative close pass of the Kola Peninsula and a giant air base used by Russia for bomber strikes against Ukraine.

It was the first time B-52H heavy bombers had ever landed in Romania, a US Air Force statement said. The last time the Stratofortress bombers had been present in airspace proximate to the Black Sea was in August 2023, a Kyiv Post review of open-source flight tracking records showed.

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it launched MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters to intercept the US bombers in international airspace over the Barents Sea. The American bombers turned away from Russian airspace “making a U-turn away from the ‘Russian’ state border” and the Russian interceptors landed without incident, the Kremlin statement said.

According to Ukrainian military information platforms, the US bombers once arriving near Finland flew towards Russia’s northern Kola Peninsula, a territory containing critical Kremlin strategic air warfare installations, radars, and military airfields.

The American B-52s flew a circular orbit off-shore from Russia’s main strategic hub in the region, the city of Murmansk, before proceeding south, those reports said.

The eight-engine US bombers were escorted by at least two Finnish Air Force F-18 fighters during part of a 3,000-plus kilometer journey along NATO’s eastern frontier. US official statements said all aircraft proceeded on planned flight paths without incidents.

US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress (aka “BUFF”) lands at the NATO main eastern tier air base Mihail Kogălniceanu near Constanza Romania on July 21. US Air Force photo.