NATO starts drills near Ukraine border amid crisis

NATO starts drills near Ukraine border amid crisis
# 12 March 2014 01:57 (UTC +04:00)

On Tuesday, the air drills began at the Lask Air Base in central Poland, where four Polish F-16s took off.

A US Hercules transport plane also landed with support staff, while at least 12 US F-16 fighter jets and 300 personnel are set to arrive by Thursday.

The US reportedly decided to send jets after a phone conversation between US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Polish counterpart Tomasz Siemoniak on Sunday.

However, Washington claims that the drills were planned before the outbreak of crisis in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, powerful winds and high seas postponed the Black Sea drills by 24 hours, according to the Bulgarian Defense Ministry.

“The weather is now improving, the sea is not that rough and I don't expect another postponement,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Dimitar Titev.

On Monday, NATO said that it would dispatch Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) reconnaissance aircraft over Poland and Romania in order to monitor the crisis in Ukraine.

The USS Truxtun, a US Navy guided-missile destroyer, has also crossed Turkey's Bosphorus Strait and entered the Black Sea, as the war of words between the US and Russia heats up over the crisis in Ukraine.

Russia has sent forces to Ukraine’s southern region of Crimea after the Russian parliament authorized President Vladimir Putin to use armed forces to “protect Russia’s interests in that region.”

The local Crimean administration is expected to hold a referendum on March 16 in order to decide whether the Black Sea peninsula should become part of the Russian territory or remain part of Ukraine.

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