Tensions between the US and Russia continue to escalate with reports that Russian planes flew a threatening distance from the United States.

Four Tupolev Tu-95 four-engine turboprop bombers, code named "Bear," flew near the Alaska coast, according to NBC News. The planes breached the U.S. Air Defense Zone on Monday and were subsequently shadowed by American fighter jets.

The defense zone is the area around the U.S. and Canada in which aircraft are required to identify themselves. However, NBC News reported that the aircraft did not violate American airspace. The flight of four split into two pairs: one staying in the area and the other flying southward.

According to the Daily Mail, the bombers were spotted by radar near the Aleutian Islands and were intercepted by F-22 stealth fighter jets, which were reported at 4:30 p.m. The nuclear capable planes that made their way south were then detected by radar 50 miles off California.

The nuclear-capable bombers were intercepted by F-15 fighter jets and then headed back east to their base, which the Daily Mail reported is in Anadyr, Russia. Flying alongside the bombers were two Il-78 aerial refueling tankers. NORAD spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told the Washington Free Beacon that the last time an incident like this happened was on July 4, 2012.

"They typically do long-range aviation training in the summer, and it is not unusual for them to be more active during this time," he said. "We assess this was part of training. And they did not enter territorial airspace."

However, U.S. legislators have not taken kind to Russia's latest actions. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-TX, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, denounced the bombers' flight, calling it a provocative gesture.

"Putin is doing this specifically to try to taunt the U.S. and exercise, at least in the reported world, some sort of saber-rattling, muscle-flexing kind of nonsense. Truth of the matter is we would have squashed either one of those [bombers] like baby seals," he said, according to Washington Free Beacon.