US drone spotted near Russia’s Crimea
A US drone has been spotted flying near the Russian territory of Crimea; the latest in a series of air incidents which many fear could spark wider confrontations between Russia and the United States.
CivMilAir, which monitors military aviation flights worldwide, said on Friday that the US drone, an RQ-4 Global Hawk, was spotted conducting reconnaissance near Crimea earlier in the day.
It said the drone had cruised over war-torn eastern Ukraine and even flew over the demarcation line in Ukraine’s Donbass region before coming within 30 kilometers of the coast of Sevastopol, the port on the Black Sea which serves as the capital of Crimea.
The website indicated that the US drone had taken off from a base in Sigonella in Sicily, Italy, where NATO military alliance accommodates a US navy base.
The unmanned aircraft’s flight near the Russian territory may trigger a strong response from Moscow. Russia has repeatedly accused the US and NATO of carrying out “irresponsible” air missions near its territories or in other places where Russian fighter jets are operating as part of their international missions.
Most previous incidents have come as part of air patrols by the two sides. A Russian Su-27 intercepted a US Navy EP-3 Aries surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea in January. The Pentagon criticized Russia for the flight and said that the Russian fighter flew too close to the US plane.
A NATO F-16 also flew near a Russian plane carrying Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu over the Baltics in June. A Russian Su-27, which was escorting the minister’s plane, then showed its arsenal of air-to-air missiles to the US fighter jet to end the high-profile incident.
In April last year, Russia was forced to suspend an agreement to cooperate with the US in the skies of Syria where the two countries maintain a military presence. That came after the US fired missiles at a Syrian military base west of the country.
Russia and the US have been locked over a conflict in Ukraine for the past four years. A main dispute between the two is the rejoining of Crimea, a former Ukrainian territory, to Russia after a referendum in 2014.
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