*
US IN TENUOUS SABRE RATTLING OVER UKRAINE
March 06, 2014
Under the pretext of “deterring
Russian aggression” in Ukraine, the US
Defense Department has announced plans to
add several fighter jets to US
aircraft squadrons based near Russian borders,
in a move to embolden the Baltic states and Poland.
Following NATO
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announcement that alliance
officials would put “the entire range of NATO-Russia
cooperation under review,”
Pentagon head, Chuck Hagel, outlined plans on
Wednesday to broaden military cooperation with Poland
and the Baltic states, without elaborating on the details.
An unnamed source told Reuters that the Pentagon plans to send six additional F-15 fighter jets, and
a Boeing KC-135 refueling Stratotanker, to beef up the squadron of four
F-15 currently flying air patrols over the Baltic
states.
NATO has been carrying out patrols in the Baltic states for
the last 10 years.
In Poland the US Air Force has a training squadron of F-16
fighters and Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes, and the same source said
that more aircrafts might be added there.
Washington is accusing Moscow of deploying troops to the
Ukrainian region of Crimea and has already called off all planned exercises and
training with the Russian military in protest.
It should be noted that according to
a Russian-Ukrainian treaty signed in 2010, Moscow has an agreed and constant
military presence in the Crimean peninsula.
Russia pays Ukraine $97.75 million annually for use of the
naval base in Sevastopol.
The treaty underpins Russia’s right to bolster personnel in
the Crimea to up to 25,000 troops.
Earlier this week, President
Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s military
involvement in Ukraine would take place only as a “last resort.”
“If we see this lawlessness starting in eastern regions, if
the people ask us for help – in addition to a plea from
a legitimate president, which we already have – then we reserve the
right to use all the means we possess to protect those citizens. And we
consider it quite legitimate,”
he said.
Last week Russia’s
Federation Council unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to use Russian military forces
in Ukraine if civil rights of the Russian minority in the country are violated.
Western capitals remain skeptical of Moscow’s policy and continue
to blame Russia of “military intervention” in Ukraine.
“This morning the Defense
Department is pursuing measures to support our allies,” Hagel told American lawmakers,
specifying that this will include
expansion of aviation
training in Poland
and deployment of additional US
aircraft for patrol missions in the skies above Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
It is “time for all of us to stand
with Ukrainian people in support of their territorial integrity,”
Hagel told the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
The general dismissed Moscow's assertion that Russian troops
are not deployed in the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine and called to “deter further Russian aggression.”
Hagel also said that the head of the US European Command, General
Philip Breedlove, also planned to hold consultations with central and
eastern European defense chiefs.
'DETERRING RUSSIAN AGGRESSION'
After Crimea’s self-defense forces took control of the
peninsula,
Poland requested a NATO emergency
meeting under the pretext of ‘Article 4’, which empowers any NATO member to request
consultations if it believes its security, independence or territorial
integrity are under threat.
[On a voulu s’en servir contre
la Libye et la Syrie, il me semble !?]
“Regardless of the limited trust the
world and Poland have to words spoken in Moscow,
it must be said that we treat some of President Putin’s remarks as proof that
pressure … to stop a brutal intervention, a paramilitary intervention in Crimea
is working,”
the Polish prime minister said last Tuesday, urging Russia
to “abandon its aggressive plans toward Ukraine.”
This statement was made after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused
Poland and Lithuania of inciting protests in the capital of Ukraine, and
training the protesters who battled against police forces in Kiev.
Ukraine is not a NATO member country,
yet the recent developments in
Ukraine caused Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen to make a statement that NATO plans to “intensify our partnership”
and “strengthen our
cooperation” with Ukraine in order to “support democratic reforms.”
[Ça a un petit air de Vietnam!]
Russia's NATO envoy,
Aleksandr Grushko, told reporters
“that NATO still has a double standard
policy” and that “Cold War stereotypes are still applied towards Russia.”
“Ukraine cannot join NATO because
the West realizes what Kiev’s NATO membership would mean for Russia,”
noted Deputy Foreign
Minister Vasily Nebenzya .
*
LAKENHEATH FIGHTERS HEADED TO
BALTICS TO BEEF UP AIR SPACE PATROLLING AS UKRAINE CRISIS CONTINUES
Jennifer H. Svan and Adam L. Mathis
Stars and Stripes’ Slobodan Lekic contributed to this story.
March 6, 2014
Stars and Stripes
Photo. An F-15C Eagle from the 493rd Fighter Squadron takes
off from RAF Lakenheath , England, Thursday. The 48th Fighter Wing is sending
additional aircraft and personnel to support NATOs air policing mission in
Lithuania, at the request of U.S. allies in the Baltics.
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Six F-15C Eagles and more than 60
U.S. airmen from RAF Lakenheath, England, were en route Thursday to Lithuania
to bolster NATO’s air policing mission over the Baltics region amid the crisis
in nearby Ukraine.
U.S. Air Force officials with the 48th Fighter Wing at
Lakenheath, and at U.S. Air Forces in Europe headquarters at Ramstein Air Base
said Thursday morning that the additional fighter jets and military personnel
were already on their way to Siauliai air base, Lithuania.
The Pentagon announced late Wednesday that the U.S. military
planned to augment its current Baltics air policing mission.
The action “comes at the request of our Baltic allies,”
said USAFE spokeswoman Capt. Reba Good.
“We’re committed to our NATO allies. We’ll continue to
support them.”
Lacking the capabilities to police
their airspace, the Baltic nations have relied on their NATO allies,
which send fighter jets and crews on a rotational basis to perform the mission.
For the past 10 years the United States has shared the task
of protecting Baltic airspace with several other NATO countries, including
Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain.
The 48th Air Expeditionary Group out of Lakenheath has been
deployed to Lithuania in support of the mission since early January, when it
replaced a Belgian unit.
That mission is still scheduled to end as planned in early
May, Good said.
The Polish military will assume the next rotation.
The contingent includes pilots, engineers, medical
personnel, support groups and communications personnel. The Air Force declined
to provide the number of servicemembers because of security reasons.
Though the beefed-up U.S. contingent
headed to the Baltics more than doubles the number
of U.S. warplanes currently patrolling the skies over the former Soviet
republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, a senior NATO diplomat said
Thursday,
“this
is essentially a symbolic action.”
“It’s a demonstration meant to
reassure those allies of the American presence and commitment,”
said the envoy, who spoke on usual condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Congress
that the United States would, separately, boost U.S. training flights with the
Polish military.
The U.S. Air Force in November 2012 stood up a small
aviation detachment, marking the first enduring presence of U.S. military
members on Polish soil.
Unaccompanied Air Force personnel are assigned to the unit,
which hosts periodic rotations of U.S. F-16 fighter jets and C-130 cargo and
personnel transport aircraft that deploy to Poland for joint training.
Good said there are currently 10 airmen working at the
aviation detachment. No U.S. aircraft are deployed there at the moment, she
said.
Next up in the rotation are three C-130s and about 100
personnel from Ramstein, scheduled to arrive in early April, Good said, but
given Hagel’s remarks, this could change. They will be located at Powidz air
base in Poland.
“I think it’s clear ... that the
events of the past week underscore the need for
America’s continued global
engagement and leadership,”
Hagel said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
While Air Force officials in Europe wouldn’t draw a
connection between the Ukraine crisis and the extra jets sent to the Baltics,
Lithuanian’s defense minister said the move was in
response
to Russia’s “aggression in Ukraine
and its amplified military activity
in the Kaliningrad region,”
the Baltic News
Service reported.
Meanwhile Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite warned Thursday, during a meeting in Brussels
of the European Council, that Russia was trying to
redraw its post-Cold War map and borders.
“So, first it’s Ukraine, Moldova
will be next and, finally, it can reach the Baltic states,”
she told journalists in Brussels, according to the Baltic
News Service.
*
PENTAGON SENDS 6 WARPLANES TO PATROL
SKIES OVER 3 BALTIC NATIONS
By James Rosen McClatchy Washington Bureau
Hannah Allam of the Washington Bureau contributed.
March 5, 2014
WASHINGTON — In a flexing of U.S.
military muscle,
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday dispatched six F-15 aircraft to patrol the skies over Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as
the Ukraine crisis entered its fifth day.
The move more than doubles American warplanes’ presence in
the NATO mission to protect the three Baltic nations,
once part of the former Soviet Union.
Hagel said the action was taken at the request of the three
countries.
Hagel also boosted U.S. training flights with the Polish
military in a separate move intended to signal American resolve in the face of
the recent Russian aggression.
The United States currently provides four F-15s to fulfill
its part in NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, in which warplanes from 14 of
the Western military alliance’s member nations take turns patrolling the skies
over the former Soviet republics.
Through April, the United States will add six additional
fighter jets to the mix, according to a defense official who requested
anonymity in order to provide details of the beefed-up mission.
Pentagon officials are consulting with their Polish
counterparts about increasing U.S. training flights there.
Ten U.S. Air Force officers and other personnel now help
train Polish military aviators in F-16 and C-130 aircraft.
Meanwhile, during a trip by President Barack Obama to
Connecticut, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the United States is pursuing actions on its own and in concert
with allies.
Carney said the Ukrainian government must make sure the
rights of ethnic Russians there are protected, but U.S. officials have seen no
evidence that they have been violated.
Even with the show of military force, Hagel and Army Gen.
Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were on Capitol Hill to
advocate caution and push a resolution that would avoid more direct military
action.
“I urge continued restraint in the
days ahead in order to preserve room for a diplomatic solution,”
Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee on
Wednesday.
Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., cited
the Ukraine conflict as one of the threats facing the U.S. military during a hearing on the
$600.6
billion Pentagon budget
that Obama sent
Congress on Tuesday.
In the face of criticism from Hagel
and Dempsey over defense funding cuts since 2011, Levin said lawmakers must determine
“whether the resources that we are
providing to the Department of Defense are adequate to enable our military to
meet its national security missions.”
Hagel said he was in contact with his NATO counterparts and
with the defense ministers of Russia and the fledgling Ukrainian government.
“THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK
UNDERSCORE THE NEED FOR AMERICA’S CONTINUED GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP,”
Hagel told the panel.
The Pentagon chief said Obama’s defense
budget “reflects that reality” and “helps sustain our commitments and
our leadership at a very defining moment.”
Hagel said he was part of a broad administration effort to
provide economic aid to the new Ukrainian government and step up cooperation
with European allies.
“This is a time for wise and steady and firm leadership,”
he said.
“And it’s a time for all of us to stand with the Ukrainian
people in support of their territorial integrity and their sovereignty. And we are
doing that.”
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the
committee, disagreed.
“Events across the Middle East, Africa and most recently in
Ukraine have brought into sharp focus a reality that President Obama seems
unwilling to accept — the tide of war is not receding,”
Inhofe said.
“Instead, U.S. national security is
being challenged in ways that I haven’t seen in all of my years serving
in Washington.”
In Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry, a day after
visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, said he and the foreign ministers from
France and Britain had held separate meetings with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia.
“We agreed to continue intense discussions in the coming
days with Russia, with the Ukrainians, in order to see how we can normalize the
situation, stabilize it, and overcome the crisis,”
Kerry told reporters.
In Washington, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, mixed
pledges of bipartisan support for Obama on the Ukraine crisis with claims that
his energy policies are aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“AMERICA HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO
STAND UP FOR FREEDOM AROUND THE GLOBE,”
Boehner said on the House floor.
“And the House will work with the administration to support
the Ukrainian people and
CONFRONT RUSSIAN AGGRESSION.”
But the speaker said the Energy Department
“is sitting on 24 applications for natural
gas exports” to allies in Europe and elsewhere that could ease dependence on
Russian supplies through pipelines that go through Ukraine.
“This amounts to a de facto ban that only emboldens Vladimir
Putin, allowing him to sell large quantities of natural gas to our allies,”
Boehner said.
Boehner said the House could vote this week on “a bailout
package” of U.S. aid for the pro-Western Ukrainian
government
that took power last week after
months of protests.
Carney said that Obama spoke with British Prime Minister
David Cameron about the crisis and both leaders
“expressed their grave concern over Russia’s clear violation
of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and both noted that the current circumstances are unacceptable.
Russia has already started to pay a
cost for its actions, such as reducing investor confidence.”
The European Commission, the executive agency of the
European Union, agreed Wednesday to give the Ukraine
government $4.1 billion in aid and loans over the next several years.
“The events of the last days have
shocked us all and reminded us that principles that we cherish, like
peace, cannot be taken for granted,”
said Jose Manuel Barroso, the commission president.
*
US NAVY CONFIRMS MISSILE DESTROYER
USS TRUXTON APPROACHING THE BLACK SEA
March 06, 2014
The US Navy has confirmed that a (nuclear-powered guided
missile cruiser) guided
missile destroyer, the USS Truxton, is heading to the Black Sea, for
what the US military said is a “routine” deployment, decided long before the
crisis in Ukraine, which has divided world powers.
The US Navy said in a statement that the USS Truxton left
Greece on Thursday on the way to the Black Sea and was going to conduct training
with the Romanian and Bulgarian navy.
“While in the Black Sea, the ship will conduct a port visit
and routine, previously planned exercises with allies and partners in the
region,” The US Navy said in statement.
“Truxton’s operations in the Black Sea were scheduled well
in advance of her departure from the United States,” the statement added.
The ship has a crew of about 300 and is part of an aircraft
carrier strike group that left the US in mid-February.
The announcement comes after Turkish authorities confirmed
on Wednesday they had given permission to a US navy warship to pass through the
Bosphorus Straights, which is the only entrance to the Black Sea, it was
reported in the Hurriyet Daily News.
However, Turkish sources told the Hurriyet Daily News that
the ship in question was not the nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W.
Bush, as was suggested in some news reports. The USS George Bush is too heavy
in terms of tonnage to meet the standards of the Montreaux Convention, which
governs what can and can’t access the Black Sea.
The Pentagon also said on Wednesday that US fighter jets
would join NATO patrols on missions in the Baltic countries, which include
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
On Sunday the Tass news agency reported that the guided
missile frigate USS Taylor, which had been assigned to the Black Sea for the
Sochi Winter Olympics,
[?]
was still in the Turkish port of Samsun for repairs,
[?]
after running aground on February 12.
Two Russian navy ships also entered the Black Sea through
the Bosphorus on Tuesday,
as well as a Ukrainian navy vessel which was heading
for Odessa and not the Crimea.
*
DESTROYER USS TRUXTUN HEADS FOR
BLACK SEA AMID HEIGHTENED TENSIONS OVER CRIMEA
By Steven Beardsley
March 6, 2014
Stars and Stripes
The guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun departs Naval
Station Norfolk for a scheduled deployment. Truxtun is heading for the Black
Sea for exercises with allied navies amid heightened tensions with Russia over
Ukraine. Sabrina Fine/U.S. Navy
NAPLES, Italy — A U.S.
guided-missile destroyer is bound for the Black Sea in what the Navy calls a
routine visit unrelated to events in Ukraine.
The USS Truxtun, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with about
300 sailors on board, departed Greece early Thursday, said a spokesman for U.S.
Naval Forces Europe-Africa in Naples.
The ship is scheduled to train with
Romanian and Bulgarian naval forces for an unspecified
period of time, conducting joint maneuvers and landing aircraft on
ships.
The spokesman, Lt. Shawn Eklund, said the visit is unrelated to Russia’s recent incursion into Ukraine.
“Truxtun’s operations in the Black Sea were scheduled well
in advance of her departure from the U.S.,”
he said.
The Truxtun is part of the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group,
which recently entered the Mediterranean and is training with regional navies
before continuing to the Middle East.
The group also includes Carrier Air Wing 8, the destroyer
USS Roosevelt and the cruiser USS Philippine Sea.
The destroyer will join the USS Taylor as the only two U.S.
vessels inside the Black Sea during a period of heightened tensions.
The Taylor, a guided-missile frigate, remains moored in
Samsun, Turkey, after it ran aground in February.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is at the
center of the country’s operations in Ukraine, where Russian soldiers
continue to surround Ukrainian military bases.
Other U.S. warships remain in the region on scheduled
deployments.
A group of amphibious ships with an embarked Marine expeditionary unit
also recently entered European waters.
The Bataan Amphibious
Ready Group, which counts roughly 4,000 sailors and Marines, is training
with regional navies before continuing to the Middle East.
*
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