MOSCOW, 20 April, 2021 (TON): On Monday, a Russian fighter jet intercepted and escorted U.S. and Norwegian patrol aircraft over the Barents Sea.

The incident over the body of water north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia involved a MiG-31 fighter jet, said the Russian Defense Ministry.

"Intercept activity is not unusual. The majority of these are considered safe. However, we don’t get into details of the interactions themselves,” the official of the Pentagon.

According to the media, a Russian MiG-31 last week escorted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft along the country’s far northeast Kamchatka Peninsula over the Pacific Ocean.

Moscow in the past month has heightened its military presence in the region, particularly at its border with Ukraine and in the Black Sea, with Russian jets and bombers frequently flying near allied airspace.

However, fighting has increased in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists. Biden administration officials have confirmed that Russia now has more troops on the border with Ukraine than at any time since 2014, when it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.