Russia has flown two supersonic nuclear bombers over the Norwegian Sea, to the north of Shetland, in a stark warning to the West. It comes hours after Vladimir Putin deployed his strategic aircraft over the Bering Sea, the body of water separating the US state of Alaska and Russia’s far-east.

The moves are seen as a display of military strength to the West as Russia prepares to mark the first anniversary of the disastrous war in Ukraine on February 24. The giant Tu-160 White Swan flights follow ominous warnings from the Putin regime and its propagandists over the use of nuclear weapons if he loses the conventional war.

It comes as NATO defence ministers meet in Brussels this week to discuss Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and their commitment to defence spending.

The planes patrolled the Norwegian and Barents Sea in a 13-hour mission which included in-flight fuelling, said the Russian defence ministry.

‘Two Tu-160 strategic bombers have performed a scheduled flight in the airspace above neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian seas,’ it said a statement. The Tu-95MS flights on Tuesday had been for seven hours.

In a rise in nuclear tension, the Norwegian Intelligence Service announced in its annual report that for the first time in three decades Russia began deploying ships with tactical atomic weapons in the Baltic Sea. The nuclear-armed vessels are from Putin’s Northern Fleet, says reports.

more at dailymail.co.uk