An RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft like the one shown is currently flying non-military mapping missions over South, Central America and the Caribbean at the request of partner nations in the region. (U.S. Air Force photo/Bobbi Zapka)
Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has ordered the military to present plans on how to “react to provocations” concerning NATO’s increasing involvement in the Ukraine conflict, the Defense Ministry said on June 28.
The ministry noted in a statement a recent “increased intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.”
“Such flights increase the probability that incidents may happen in airspace involving Russian military aircraft and the risk of a direct confrontation of the alliance with the Russian Federation,” the ministry warned.
NATO members will be held responsible in the event of any such incident, the ministry added, without elaborating on how the Russian military could react.
Last week, Russia accused the U.S. of sharing responsibility with Kiev for a deadly strike on a beach in the Crimean port city Sevastopol.
The strike, which was carried out using American-supplied MGM-140 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, claimed the lives of four civilians, including two children, and left more than 150 others wounded.
The U.S. was to blame because it helped Kiev forces deploy the weapons, the Russian MoD said at the time, alleging that American military specialists are directly involved in programming missiles before they are fired at the Crimean Peninsula.
Still, Washington distanced itself from the attack, claiming that Kiev forces unilaterally decided what to do with Western-supplied weapons.
The U.S. response didn’t satisfy Russia. On June 27, the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow was taking retaliatory measures in connection with Washington’s involvement in the deadly missile strike on Sevastopol.
“The tragedy that occurred in Sevastopol will certainly not remain and does not remain without our response. The nature of this response is a matter that I am not at all authorized to discuss. I think that the idea of certain permissible scenarios is also on the minds of many in the West. They should feel the extreme risks associated with such actions,” the senior diplomat said during a Rossiya-1 TV broadcast, according to the TASS news agency.
Commenting on the likelihood of the Russian side using tactical nuclear weapons in response to the strike, Ryabkov pointed out that “the Russian president, as the supreme commander-in-chief, makes such fateful decisions.”
“The scenarios in which this is permissible are described in detail and precisely in the basic documents. Everything correlates with the current situation,” the senior Russian diplomat emphasized.
All in all, the U.S.-enabled Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol will not apparently go without a serious Russian response.
Russia is apparently looking for a response that would not only deter Kiev and its backers, but also prevent the reputation of the tragedy. One way to do this would be to shoot down NATO drones spying on Crimea over the Black Sea.
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