MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. Exercises involving US Air Force B-52H bombers near Russia’s borders amount to provocation, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Sergei Surovikin said at a briefing for foreign military attaches on Friday.

"We believe that testing the combat use of strategic aircraft in close proximity to the Russian border is a hostile and provocative action," he pointed out.

According to Russia’s National Defense Management Center, four US Air Force B-52H bombers tried to approach the Russian border over the Black Sea on September 4, while in late August, a B-52H was intercepted over the Baltic Sea and one other over the Black Sea.

"The B-52H aircraft were detected by an over-the-horizon radar system at a maximum possible distance, which made it possible to scramble Su-27 and Su-30SM fighter jets from air defense alert units to intercept and accompany the planes and prevent them from violating the Russian border," the Russian Aerospace Forces chief said.

Surovikin stressed that Russian fighter jets had stopped the B-52H aircraft from approaching the Russian border. No aircraft incidents took place, he added.