News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

RAF Top Guns have been scrambled 88 times in the last 10 years to intercept Russian bombers threatening UK air space, figures reveal.

Fighter jets roared into the skies to confront Moscow-backed warplanes flying towards Britain in a decade of mid-air stand-offs reviving memories of the Cold War.

And the stats show a surge in Russian sorties towards the UK in 2007 - the year after ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned in London.

Russian air activity close to UK air space is tipped to surge in the coming months because of British-backed sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime over the aggression in eastern Ukraine and last year’s illegal annexation of the Crimea, as well as the ongoing probe into Mr Litvinenko’s death.

The revelations come as President Putin prepares to face calls for a ceasefire on Russia’s border with Ukraine, where 10 months of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian security forces has left more than 5,600 people dead and 1.5million forced to flee their homes.

The Russian president will hold talks with Ukraine’s leader Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande in Belarussian capital Minsk.

(Image: Reuters)

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned MPs on Tuesday the turmoil in eastern Ukraine “resembles ... a small-scale conventional war”.

He accused Putin’s regime of moving “hundreds of heavy weapons, including rocket launchers, heavy artillery, tanks and armoured vehicles” into the region, where it “maintains hundreds of regular soldiers, including special forces”.

Mr Hammond said Britain had no plans to arm Ukrainian forces, but would push ahead with non-lethal aid to Kiev and sanctions against Russians - pending the outcome of today’s negotiations, which are based on a similar peace deal struck last September, but which has been ignored.

“Fine words on a declaration tomorrow will be welcome, but we have seen them before. The proof of the pudding will be in actions on the ground,” Mr Hammond told the Commons.

“The ball is now firmly in Russia’s court. Until we see Russia complying with the terms of the Minsk agreement on the ground - withdrawing troops, stopping the flow of weapons and closing the border - there must be no let up on the pressure.”

(Image: Getty)

Meanwhile, Ministry of Defence figures seen by the Mirror highlight the ongoing threat to UK air space posed by Putin’s warplanes.

RAF jets on Britain’s Quick Reaction Alert - triggered when mystery aircraft appear on radar - were sent up to challenge Russian planes 88 times between 2005 and the end of 2014, including on 19 occasions in 2007, compared with just once a year earlier.

Russian dissident Mr Litvinenko died in late November 2006, sparking a huge legal probe followed by a dramatic surge in Russian air activity near Britain.

Putin’s military chiefs could also have been keen to test the performance and response times of the RAF Typhoon, which formally replaced the F3 Tornado as Britain’s first air defence in June 2007.

Last month, RAF jets intercepted two Russian Tupolev-95 Bear bombers over the English Channel - the first airborne skirmish of 2015.

Two days earlier, Putin was branded “nothing more or less than a common criminal dressed up as a Head of State” at the opening of a High Court inquiry into Mr Litvinenko’s death.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

The Russian planes switched off their transponders, meaning they were invisible to civilian airliners and disrupted passenger planes in and out of Britain.

Typhoons based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland and RAF Coningsby, Lincs, were ordered to intercept the long-range bombers south of Bournemouth.

Ian Kearns, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: “This may be timed with the Litvinenko court case as a signal of displeasure.

"But it fits with a wider posture of a more assertive Russian demonstration of a growing capability to defend and assert its interests as it sees fit.”

Last year, Nato conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft across Europe, about three times as many as in 2013, amid sharply increased tensions between the West and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.