“Russian flights had been carried out by small groups of one or two aircraft. And what you saw this past week was a larger, more complex formation of aircraft, carrying out a little deeper — I would say a little bit more provocative flight path,” General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s supreme allied commander, said at Monday’s briefing.
Putin showing muscles
Last week NATO forces detected and monitored four groups of Russian military aircraft conducting significant military manoeuvers in European airspace over the Baltic Sea, North Sea/Atlantic Ocean, and Black Sea.
On October 29, NATO radars detected and tracked eight Russian aircraft flying in formation over the North Sea. F-16 aircraft from the Royal Norwegian Air Force were scrambled, intercepted and identified the Russian aircraft, which included four strategic bombers and four tanker aircraft. The formation flew from mainland Russia over the Norwegian Sea in international airspace. Six of the Russian aircraft then turned back to the north-east towards Russia, while two bombers continued south-west, parallel to the Norwegian coast, heading to the south-west.
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At the same time, the two Russian aircraft were intercepted and identified by F-16s from the Portuguese Air Force over the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal.
During the afternoon of 29 October, NATO radars detected and tracked four Russian aircraft flying over the Black Sea in international air space, including two bombers and two fighter jets. Within the two days NATO forces intercepted 26 Russian warplanes.
In addition, Russian bombers repeatedly appeared over the Baltic Sea and were intercepted by fighters of Finland and Sweden which are not NATO members.
Thin line between Russian wargame and war itself
While the provocations in air aimed at messaging Europe that Russia is a great power, the Kremlin’s message to Kyiv was more clear. Shortly before the ‘elections’ in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, paratroopers’ military exercises had taken place in Russia’s Rostov Oblast, not far from the border with Ukraine.
The participants rehearsed sabotage operations and drilled landings onto potential battlefields.
It is not the first time that Russia has redeployed its troops under the pretext of military exercises, which often results in its artillery firing at Ukrainian border officers or ATO forces and its paratroopers’ fighting in the territory of Ukraine. Those who were captured claimed they ‘got lost’.
Confrontation starts
NATO could not help responding to Russia’s threat. General Philip Breedlove addressed Pentagon asking to increase U.S. rotational forces in Eastern Europe and stockpile more military equipment across the continent in response to continued aggressive moves by the Russian military. “Because of the increased pressure that we feel in Eastern Europe now, and because of the assurance measures that we are taking in the Baltics in Poland and Romania, we require additional rotational presence,” he said.
In particular, a number of air fields is being established in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two dozens of war planes are on combat duty there.
As for Russia, it continues to improve military cooperation with the Belarusian authorities and even is constructing new air bases in the territory of our country: one more Russian base with 24 jet fighters is due in two years in the Belarusian town of Babruisk.
These jets were to have been deployed in Hrodna or Brest region. But Poland and the USA signed an agreement on introducing precision-guided missiles with a range of up to 400 km into service with the Polish Air Force. Such missiles may destroy Russian troops in Lida or Baranavichi, but they will not be able to reach Babruisk.
Moreover, the Babruisk airfield, once a Soviet air base, may hold stategic bombers as it was in the Soviet period. According to the Belarusian government, such measure is designed to build the country’s security. But one look at the map is enough to realise that Belarus might become a battlefield. Once again.
Dzmitry Yahorau
