DEVASTATING Ground ATTACK Exercises of US Air Forces NATO and Slovak Military

Polish ADVANCED STEALTH Main Battle Tank Unveiled - Obrum PL-01 Better Than M1 Abrams

Bulava Intercontinental SLBM Tested

Russian Nuclear Submarine Test Fires two Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles from underwater in white sea. The Missiles have a range of upto 11,000 KMs.

NATO aircraft to monitor Ukraine crisis

Alliance to deploy reconnaissance aircraft over Poland and Romania to monitor situation in neighbouring country. 

NATO aircraft to monitor Ukraine crisis

NATO has said it will start reconnaissance flights over Poland and Romania to monitor the situation in neighbouring Ukraine where Russian forces have taken control of Crimea.

The AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) flights will take place solely over NATO territory, the alliance said on Monday.

Ukraine is not a NATO member but Russia's intervention in Crimea has alarmed neighbouring countries, including alliance members that used to be dominated by the Soviet Union.

The announcement comes as the United States is sending a dozen F-16 fighter jets and 300 service personnel to Poland as part of a training exercise.

The US and Russia are bitterly divided over how to ease the crisis, with each challenging the other to show they are really interested in a peaceful outcome.

Russia denounced alleged lawlessness by far-right activists in eastern Ukraine on Monday, in a statement likely to trigger fear in Ukraine over possible Russian intervention.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was outraged by lawlessness in the country’s east, blaming the group Right Sector for "conniving" with the new government in Kiev.

Right Sector is a grouping of several far-right and nationalist factions who were actively involved in the uprising against Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

The movement uses swastika signs, is blamed for various attacks, and according to its leader Dmitro Yarosh, has “enough weapons to defend all of Ukraine”. 

 
Its activists were among the most radical and confrontational of the demonstrators in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and organised “self-defence” brigades for the protest camp.

Witnesses in eastern Ukraine told Reuters news agency that tensions had been fuelled by pro-Russian activists to provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with a justification for invading Ukraine to protect Russians. 

NATO Force

Pro-Russia sentiment is at a high and there are fears Russia could seek to incorporate that area as well.

Violence against Russians

A referendum has been called in Crimea for March 16 on whether the region should split off and seek to become part of Russia.

Russia has criticised the West for being silent over violence and detentions taking place against Russians, highlighting the attack on a pro-Moscow demonstrators in the eastern city of Kharkiv on March 8 and the detention of Russian journalists.

"The shamefaced silence of our Western partners, human rights organisations and foreign media is surprising. It raises the question, where is the notorious objectivity and commitment to democracy?" it said.

Ukraine's government and Western leaders have accused Russian officials and media of distorting the facts to portray the protesters who Yanukovich's rule as violent extremists.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk will be received in Washington by President Barack Obama.

Obama has warned that the March 16 vote in Crimea would violate international law. But on Sunday, Putin made it clear that he supports the referendum, in phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Minister David Cameron.

“The steps taken by the legitimate leadership of Crimea are based on the norms of international law and aim to ensure the legal interests of the population of the peninsula,” said Putin, according to the Kremlin.

Putin has refused to have any dealings with the new Ukrainian leaders who replaced fugitive pro-Kremlin Yanukovich.

Amid Escalation Fears, Russia Says Kiev Sent Fighters to Crimea

MOSCOW, March 1 – Armed men dispatched from Kiev to the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea attempted an overnight storm of the local Interior Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. 

 

Situation in Crimea

“As a result of this perfidious provocation several people were injured,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This confirms that certain well-known political circles in Kiev are striving for the destabilization of the situation… we call on all those giving such orders from Kiev to show restraint.”

The allegation comes as international media report large scale Russian military movements in Crimea that have included tanks, helicopters and troops. In recent days heavily armed soldiers in unmarked uniforms have occupied the region’s parliament, airports and other strategic points across the peninsula. Reports from the regional capital of Simferopol on Saturday suggested that the military presence had been strengthened with the appearance of several manned machine gun positions around the parliament, which is flying the Russian flag after it was seized by unidentified gunmen earlier this week.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of seeking to provoke a conflict. World leaders, including US President Barack Obama, have expressed their deep concern about the apparent Russian incursion into Crimea. Interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Saturday that Russia should immediately recall all its troops to the bases where they are normally located.

“If not, the responsibility for any armed confrontation provoked by the radicals being de facto supported by the Russian military will lie with the Russian leadership,” Yatsenyuk said.

Russia maintains that any military movements in Crimea are within the framework of a 1997 agreement regulating its use of Black Sea naval bases on the peninsula that it leases from Ukraine. Self-defense squads, which maintain that they will resist orders from Kiev, have been forming in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine since the opposition swept to power in Kiev last weekend The Foreign Ministry said that the alleged assault on the Interior Ministry in Crimea on Saturday was fought off by some of these pro-Russian self defense squads. It did not specify which side suffered the casualties.

US sends ballistic missile destroyer to Spain to support NATO missile shield

USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) above

The US deployed a ballistic missile defense destroyer to Spain to boost NATO’s anti-missile shield in Europe. Washington says the deployment is aimed at curbing possible missile threats from Iran while Russia considers the move as a national security threat.

The USS Donald Cook will travel to its new home port of Rota, Spain, as part of the Obama administration's "phased adaptive approach" for European missile defense. Three other Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are to be deployed to Rota within the next two years, the Pentagon said in a press release.

"The US has a historically strong partnership with Spain, and the strength of that relationship is exemplified today as the first of four US Navy destroyers departs for Rota, Spain," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in provided comments. "Permanently forward-deploying four ships in Rota will enable us to be in the right place, not just at the right time, but all the time."

Hagel said the US is committed "to deploying missile defense architecture there," as a part of Phase 3 of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA).

The other three destroyers tasked for fielding in Spain are the USS Ross, USS Porter and USS Carney. All of the ships are to be equipped with Aegis systems and Standard Missile 3 Block 1B interceptors designed to defeat short- and medium-range ballistic missile threats.

The US Navy estimates that 1,239 military personnel will move to Spain's port of Rota as part of the EPAA plan, according to the Congressional Research Service. The move will cost $92 million, with another $100 million being spent annually on maintaining the ships in Spain.

In the meantime, if the US continues boosting its anti-missile capabilities through developing its missile defense system in Europe, Russia may eventually be forced to withdraw from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the Russian Foreign Ministry’s top disarmament official, Mikhail Ulyanov, has warned.

"We are concerned that the US is continuing to build up missile defense capability without considering the interests and concerns of Russia,” Ulyanov told Interfax. “Such a policy can undermine strategic stability and lead to a situation where Russia will be forced to exercise [its] right of withdrawal from the [START] treaty.”

Source: The Voice of Russia