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The U.K. scrambled fighter jets to intercept and escort two Russian military aircraft flying close to the British coastline amid tensions between NATO countries and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

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Royal Air Force Typhoons operating under North Atlantic Treaty Organization command were deployed Wednesday from an air base at Coningsby in eastern England, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in an e-mailed statement. The incident took place at about 6:30 p.m. off the coast of Cornwall in southwest England, the ministry said.

“I suspect what’s happening here is the Russians are trying to make some sort of a point and I don’t think we should dignify it with too much of a response,” Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday in Felixstowe, eastern England, where he was campaigning for May 7 elections. “At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into U.K. sovereign airspace.”

Violence has continued between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, in breach of a cease-fire that’s been in place since Sunday. Cameron has been one of the firmest proponents of sanctions against Russia.