US military aircraft helped direct the Ukrainian attack on the Russian naval headquarters in Sevastopol, an ex-CIA official has said.
Kiev targeted the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Friday with a series of drone and cruise missile attacks.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it shot down five missiles, but one missile got through and struck the fleet's 18th-century headquarters building in the city. One serviceman was reported missing.
Former CIA intelligence analyst Larry Johnson told Sputnik that the Ukrainian Air Force could not have hit the building without surveillance and targeting data from its Western backers.
"Clearly, there was assistance from NATO with intelligence and providing other assistance on that targeting," Johnson said.
A US Navy reconnaissance aircraft was spotted flying near Crimea during the Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol.
Before and during the attack, a US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon was flying over Romania's Black Sea coast, according to the FlightRadar24 website. It continued flying over the territory of Romania, including the coastal area.
This very same aircraft was previously observed flying over the Baltic Sea, near Russia's Kaliningrad region, according to the AirNavRadarBox website.
The retired CIA officer said that was a tell-tale sign of direct US involvement.
"Ukraine does not have what's called ISR — intelligence surveillance reconnaissance — assets. It doesn't have fixed-wing aircraft. It doesn't have the kinds of drones and it certainly doesn't have the satellites," Johnson said. "This whole collection of information ... that's all being provided to the Ukrainians by NATO, by the United States."
Answering the question, whether this Poseidon could have been gathering data for the Sevastopol attack, the ex-CIA official said "Absolutely. That's not a passenger aircraft. That's a reconnaissance aircraft, that collects signals intelligence. It can monitor what is flying in the area. It's not a coincidence. I think that this Poseidon could have been gathering data for this attack. It's part of its mission, not just attacks in Sevastopol, but attacks and in other areas within Russian territory."
Boeing's P-8A Poseidon is a maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft that has been used by the US Navy since 2009. US reconnaissance drones and aircraft have regularly been spotted near Crimea since the start of the Ukraine conflict last year.
"That's the danger. They'll keep pushing and pushing until they push past the point that when Russia retaliates, it will escalate this to a broader war," Johnson concluded.