The US spies from the air on Donbass and Crimea
The US Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk strategic unmanned aerial vehicle conducted a multi-hour reconnaissance flight along the Russian Black Sea coast on January 7.
This is not an extraordinary case, but normal US practice in the region, says military expert Sergei Gorbachev.
“This has been a common practice of Americans and their allies for the last few years after the Russian Spring. They regularly use both manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. They rise from Sicily and the island of Crete. In addition, both American forces and British aircraft are stationed in Bulgaria and Romania. This summer they flew over the Black Sea,” Gorbachev told PolitNavigator.
According to him, after the incident in the Kerch Strait on November 25, the Americans are paying increased attention to this region.
“Judging by the data that is available, it was the Americans who provided electronic intelligence, listened to the airwaves, and recorded conversations between the commanders of our border boats during this incident. Ukrainians do not have such technical capabilities. This indicates that the Americans are working in conjunction with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense,” Gorbachev said.
He emphasized that drones can only intercept a small part of the information that goes over the airwaves without proper coding.
“They fly in international airspace, so there is no point in making any claims against them. But at the political level, a statement can be made that the militarization of the Black Sea region and Azov is not carried out by Russia, but by foreign comrades from overseas. Their activity has been increasing since 1996. This does not contribute to stability in the region,” the expert concluded.
On January 7, an American heavy drone, taking off from the Sigonella airbase on the Italian island of Sicily, cruised off the coast of Crimea and Kuban for more than three hours. During the mission, he also made several flights south of the Kerch Strait. In the Sevastopol area, the drone approached the coast of the peninsula at a distance of about 33 km. At the same time, he did not violate the Russian maritime border.
Before approaching the Black Sea coast of Russia in the Crimea region, the drone conducted reconnaissance for about seven hours along the demarcation line in Donbass, being in Kiev-controlled airspace.
At the same time, the drone, capable of conducting reconnaissance hundreds of kilometers deep into enemy territory, at least eight times approached within a distance of about 45-60 km to the Russian border, in particular, in the Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions.
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