 Sergei Lavrov warned of "fratricidal conflict", while Putin was "extremely concerned" about phone calls asking for help.On 19 June, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson stated, in reply to a Parliamentary question, that, over the previous two weeks, Canadian fighter jets had been scrambled twice to ward off Russian bombers.A Russian spokesman in Ottawa, Andrey Grebenshchikov bemoaned the state of communications between the two nations, which occurred when the Harper government unilaterally ceased all contact between them.