RAF fighter jets were scrambled twice in less than 48 hours to defend Nato airspace from Russian warplanes, The Telegraph can reveal.

British Typhoons were called into action on two separate occasions this week after Kremlin aircraft flew too close to Nato’s border, sparking an alert.

The interventions came as Donald Trump appeared to lose patience with Vladimir Putin and threatened to pull out of talks on a Ukraine peace deal.

They will be used by No 10 as further evidence of the growing Russian threat as it tries to persuade the US not to scale back its presence in Europe.

It is the first time that the air force has been called into action under Operation Chessman, a new Nato mission to bolster Europe’s air defences.

Ministers said the latest stand-off in the skies showed how Russia was growing increasingly aggressive in its testing of the Western military alliance.

On Tuesday two Typhoons stationed at Malbork Air Base, in Poland, were scrambled to intercept a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea.

Less than 48 hours later another pair had to be sent up to deter an unknown aircraft leaving the exclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania.