Overview
- South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said its forces detected Russian military aircraft before they entered the nation's air defense identification zone near Dokdo and Ulleung Island and promptly scrambled Air Force fighters.
- The planes retreated from the KADIZ without crossing into South Korea's sovereign airspace, according to the JCS.
- Some media reports described the flight as a Russia–China joint patrol but South Korean authorities have not uniformly confirmed full Chinese participation.
- The KADIZ is an identification and early‑warning buffer where foreign aircraft are expected to identify themselves to reduce the risk of accidental clashes and to trigger defensive responses.
- Defence analysts and officials view the incident as part of repeated coordinated flights that have led Seoul to file protests, prompt allied monitoring, and raise the risk of miscalculation in the region.