Experts commented on the provocation of French bombers near Crimea
Russian military pilots escorted two French Mirage 2000 fighter-bombers in the sky near Crimea.
This was reported by the press service of the Black Sea Fleet, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
French Air Force aircraft, which were approaching the borders of the Russian Federation, detected radar reconnaissance equipment of the Southern Military District. A Su-27 fighter from the Black Sea Fleet took off to intercept.
“To identify air targets and prevent violation of the Russian state border, a Su-27 fighter was taken into the air. The crew of the Russian fighter identified the air targets as two Mirage 2000 fighter-bombers of the French Air Force, and then escorted them over the Black Sea,” the report says.
According to military expert Vladislav Shurygin, in recent years, Western NATO member countries have shown particular interest in Russian borders, but this is standard practice - in this case, Russia is also actively flying near the borders of the Alliance countries.
“We raised our planes to meet them - this is an absolutely normal phenomenon, it happened in Soviet times, and it happened in previous years. Now, of course, this has become much more common, because the military interest in our borders is quite large. But there is nothing critical or extreme about this. We ourselves carry out patrols in the international space, and in the same way they periodically fly out to us to escort our bombers, which “walk” along England, along the straits, so there is nothing in this, this is the usual activity of the military,” Shurygin noted.
NATO consistently arranges provocations at Russia’s borders in order to force it to react more aggressively, but our military is doing the right thing, indicating that it controls the situation, but without crossing the “red lines,” said the Chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian organization “Officers of Russia”, Hero of Russia, Major General Sergey Lipovoy.
“On the part of the French Air Force, this is certainly a provocation. In this case, we should all understand one simple thing: provocation is always aimed at deliberately causing a certain reaction that will be beneficial to the provocateur. What benefits do NATO countries have? Any response by Russia that can definitely be interpreted as a threat and, as a result, lead to a “hot” conflict.
Under no circumstances should we allow this to happen. Therefore, the only right decision in this situation is to indicate that our borders are carefully guarded and under no circumstances take rash retaliatory actions. Russia does not need to demonstrate its superiority using such methods; our achievements in the defense sector speak for us.
Therefore, the best response to provocations is not to demonstrate the expected reaction and maintain dignity, taking into account the fact that our combat aircraft also patrol the world’s airspace along the borders of various states, including NATO,” Lipovoy concluded.
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