A US Air Force Lockheed U-2S Dragon Lady spy plane operating out of the Akrotiri air base on Cyprus spent about five hours over Ukrainian and international airspace in the Black Sea attempting to monitor Russian military activities, Military Observer, a Telegram channel tracking global military operations and conflicts, has reported.
The Russian military has not commented on the information.
Earlier, the Defence Ministry indicated that a total of six NATO reconnaissance aircraft had been spotted operating in the Black Sea region over the course of 24 hours. The aircraft were said to have been detected and tracked throughout their flights by the radar systems of Russia’s air defence troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin complained Saturday that the US and its NATO allies were conducting unscheduled drills in Black Sea waters, concentrating “not only a powerful ship group…but also aviation, [and] strategic aviation.”
“I should say that our Defence Ministry also proposed to hold its own unplanned exercises in the same area. But I believe that this is not appropriate and there is no need to further escalate the situation there,” Putin stressed.
On Thursday, the Kremlin characterised NATO’s activities in the Black Sea as “destabilising,” “dangerous” and “provocative,” saying Putin had conveyed his concerns on the matter to outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Also Thursday, a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-30 jet was scrambled to intercept a UK RC-135 reconnaissance plane as it attempted to approach Crimean waters. A day earlier, the Russian military detected a US Air Force E-8C reconnaissance and strike coordination plane over the Black Sea, saying it came within 35 km of the Russian frontier.
The US, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine began drills in the Black Sea this week after the USS Mount Whitney amphibious command ship –flagship of the US Sixth Fleet, and the USS Porter, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, entered the body of water last week.