Russia’s Defence Ministry views US military activity in Black Sea region as security threat
The Defence Ministry of the Russian Federation views the US military activity in the Black Sea region as a threat to regional security and strategic stability – as posted by TASS
“We view the US aggressive military activity in the Black Sea region as a threat to regional security and strategic stability," the Russian Defence Ministry said, adding that ‘the true goal of the US actions unprovoked by Russia in the Black Sea region is to study the theatre of military operations in case if Kiev resolves the conflict in the southeast by force’. As emphasised, NATO countries that are holding unscheduled exercises in the Black Sea have intensified air reconnaissance near the borders of the Russian Federation.
The Defence Ministry gave concrete examples. In particular, six flights of NATO reconnaissance aircraft in the airspace over the Black Sea were spotted and accompanied by radars of the anti-aircraft missile regiments of the Russian Air Force over the past day. In the central and northwestern parts of the Black Sea, naval reconnaissance flights of three US Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from an air base in Sicily (Italy), a French Air Force C-160G Gabriel reconnaissance aircraft from an airbase in Romania, a US Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance plane from an airbase on the Island of Crete (Greece) and a US Air Force U-2S strategic reconnaissance aircraft from a Cyprus airbase have been detected. In addition, the US Navy guided missile destroyer Porter, the US Navy command ship Mount Whitney and the tanker John Lenthall – after completing their transit from the Georgian port of Batumi – are detected in the southwestern part of the Black Sea and continue moving westward.
"The US warships in the Black Sea are monitored by ships of the Black Sea Fleet: the missile cruiser Moskva, the frigate Admiral Essen, and the patrol vessel Pavel Derzhavin,” the Russian Defence Ministry informed.
