LONDON (Reuters) - British fighter jets interrupted the path of a Russian maritime patrol aircraft over the Black Sea in the second such incident this week, Britain’s defense ministry said on Friday.

The RAF Typhoons scrambled from Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in Romania on Thursday in response to a Russian Be-12 plane which was heading southwest over the Black Sea from Crimea, the ministry said.

The Royal Air Force has deployed Typhoons to the Baltic States in recent years as part of a mission to protect NATO airspace in the region.

In the previous incident on Tuesday, it scrambled two typhoons in Romania to shadow two suspected Russian Su-30 Flanker aircraft.

Britain’s Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster, spoke about “an ever more assertive Russia” in a speech in London in July.

He said the RAF has had to intercept Russian military aircraft more than 80 times over the last decade.