Terrible bombing russia rsm 56 missiles hits a nato warship in black sea,
u.s condemns heavily. Vladimir Putin is not happy about recent american and
nato exercises in the black sea, ordering the bombing of simulated enemy
ships and conducting aerial denial tests in a region he believes to be
within russia's sphere of influence.
Pentagon spokesman john f kirby says that's just fine, "i know of no
infringement on our ability to exercise in seabreeze by russian activity,"
Kirby said of the two-week exercise hosted by ukraine.
The US and Ukrainian navies including airmen from the seventh special
operations squadron 5,000 military personnel, 30 ships and 40 aircraft from
the US. Ukraine and NATO ally and partner nations are helping to strengthen
ukraine's capacity to protect its territorial waters after losing 70 percent
of its naval fleet to russia in 2014.
The 7th SOS conducted coordinated operations with ukrainian and british
counterparts to support maritime and ground forces.
US aircraft also conducted intercept and formation training together with
ukrainian and british fighters. As to whether russia announced their
aggressive exercises in advance or created a deconfliction channel, kirby
referred air force magazine to moscow.
Meanwhile on july 2nd nato partners greece, romania and turkey participated
in air defense exercises in the black sea.
The u.s maintains a steady rotational presence in the countries of the black
sea in order to deter russian aggression.
Crimea is just 200 miles from nato shores. two nato air policing fighter
jets are on constant standby at Romania's air base, an air base subsidized
by american european deterrence initiative funding and used by some 200
american troops on rotation in the country.
Joint air policing missions contribute to the development of response and
deterrence capacity, the romanian ministry of defense told air force
magazine in a statement about the role of its F-16s.
The july 3 russian exercise with suhoy fighters and bombers practiced
missile and bombing strikes against mock enemy vessels, according to
Reuters.
Only days earlier, Al Jazeera reported that russia tested its S-400 air
defense systems, part of the anti-access and area denial system placed on
the heavily militarized crimean peninsula.
Russia's aggressive response is in addition to a massive disinformation
campaign that portrayed the american ships as entering crimea's territorial
waters in a provocative way.
Kirby said the naval exercises have been operating in international waters.
"It's a defensive exercise and it's one of the most robust sea breeze
exercises we've conducted to date," he said.
"We are proud of the interoperability and the capability that it's showing
that we can have with international partners in that international seaway,"
he said.
