Pentagon: Russian Warplanes Violate Ukraine’s Airspace
April 25th, 2014Via: USA Today:
Russian warplanes have entered Ukrainian airspace several times in the last 24 hours, the Pentagon announced Friday.
U.S. officials called on Russia to cease the operations, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
“We call upon the Russians to take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation,” Warren said.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Russian counterpart on Thursday, but details of their conversation were not released. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has tried, without success, to contact Russia’s defense minister.
Ukraine’s air defenses are old but still potent enough, under the right circumstances, to take down Russian aircraft, said Michael O’Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution. In fact, drawing fire might be Russia’s intent by entering Ukraine’s airspace.
“I don’t put a deliberate provocation, in order to create a pretext for response and invasion, past Putin at this point,” O’Hanlon said.
The U.S. response to such a move, O’Hanlon said, would be limited, perhaps the sale of arms or sharing intelligence.
The violation of Ukraine’s airspace follows war games that Russian troops began near the border. About 40,000 Russian troops have massed there, according to the Pentagon. Last month, Russian troops seized key facilities on the Crimean peninsula and annexed it.
