Russian war planes stoke Western fears amid Ukraine crisis
Source: France24
NATO officials are increasingly concerned about long-range flights by Russian war jets encroaching on European airspace, amid ever increasing East-West tensions over Ukraine.
2015-02-11
Western countries are eyeing Moscow suspiciously as it continuously fattens its defence budget, appears to fuel violence in eastern Ukraine, and launches myriad military exercises near – and even far – from its borders. A particularly worrying development is the increased number of Russian war planes that have become a nuisance over European skies.
Last week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance announced it had intercepted Russian aircraft more than 400 times last year, insisting the jets posed a danger to civilian flights.
Russian flights and exercises are being executed without prior announcement to concerned countries, and in some cases without the aviation instrument normally used to alert civilian aircraft or air traffic controllers on the ground about their presence, increasing the possibility of collisions.
However, that is not all that worries NATO.
“These Russian flights are taking place increasingly close to territorial airspace of European powers. Most recently, we saw a new incident along the French coastline,” Alexandre Vautravers, a professor at Webster University and a European military expert, told FRANCE 24.
Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20150211-russia-planes-european-airspace-ukraine-crimea-nato/
= new reply since forum marked as read
- Tell 'em to drink some Chamomile Tea. That always helps me when I'm anxious.
