Kyiv, March 11 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – According to The Associated Press, today the North Atlantic Alliance sent two reconnaissance aircraft to monitor Ukrainian airspace and ship traffic in the Black Sea due to the fact that Russia has strengthened its military positions in Crimea.
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NATO headquarters spokesman Lt. Col. Jay Jenzen said one aircraft, based in England, would monitor Russian air and sea movements from Polish airspace, while another, based in Germany, would fly over Romania.
Note that Poland and Romania are NATO members. The Romanian Black Sea border is only 220 km from the Crimean Peninsula.
Both aircraft are Boeing E-3 Sentry models and have a rotating radar dome over the fuselage, Jenzen said. This will allow them to control combat movements covering an area of 300000 square kilometers without leaving NATO airspace.
The alliance decided on Monday to use AWACS on aircraft to monitor Russia's military buildup, with the first Sentry flying over Romania on Tuesday.
In addition, the United States has deployed additional combat fighters to NATO bases in Eastern Europe, including six F-15s in Lithuania and a dozen F-16 fighters in Poland.
A U.S. Navy destroyer also joined the Bulgarian and Romanian navies for exercises in the Black Sea, several hundred miles from the Crimean Peninsula. At the same time, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense stated that the exercises were planned back in 2013 and were in no way connected with the latest events in Ukraine.