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United States Central Command has said that Russian fighter pilots over Syria have been trying to bait U.S. fighter jets in "dogfights."
An unidentified official told CNN that the Russians are trying to "provoke" U.S. fighter pilots and "draw us into an international incident."
The official said that since March, Russian jets have violated deconfliction protocols at least 85 times. The incidents include flying too close to coalition bases and engaging in aggressive behavior. In 26 of those incidents, armed Russian jets flew over U.S. positions in Syria.
U.S. Central Command also shared two videos, one from April 2 and one from April 18, showing Russian fighter jets violating coalition airspace and coming within 2,000 feet of a U.S. aircraft.
"They're maneuvering aggressively against us when our protocols would say we're supposed to stay… several miles apart and just monitor each other," Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who leads Air Forces Central Command, told DefenseOne in an interview.
He said that U.S. pilots are trained not to take the bait and work to de-escalate dangerous situations.
"The guidance that I've given our folks is we're not going to act like they are," Grynkewich said. "We're going to act in a professional manner, and we're going to try to de-escalate the situation."