Russian jets in 'aggressive manoeuvres' against US warship
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
14.04.2016 08:57
Russian jets have performed “aggressive flight manoeuvres” against a US warship cooperating with Polish personnel in the Baltic Sea, American naval officials have stated.
A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft makes a very-low altitude pass by the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75). Photo:U.S. Navy 6th Fleet photo/Released
The USS Donald Cook, which was in international waters, was carrying out deck landing drills with a Polish helicopter when the first incident occurred on 11 April.
According to a statement released by US European Command (EUCOM) on Wednesday, the ship “encountered multiple, aggressive flight manoeuvres by Russian aircraft that were performed within close proximity of the ship.”
EUCOM has said that “as a safety precaution,” flight operations involving the Polish helicopter were suspended until the aircraft left the scene.
The following day, “Russian aircraft flew in a simulated attack profile and failed to respond to repeated safety advisories in both English and Russian.
“We have deep concerns about the unsafe and unprofessional Russian flight manoeuvres,” the statement underlined.
Poland's foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski has said that “we will talk about this with the Americans, because it was an incident directed principally against the Americans.
“We will consider a joint response.”
The incident follows a declaration last week by NATO Secretary-General Jons Stoltenberg that the organisation will be consolidating its presence on NATO's eastern flank, a strategy that Poland has been pushing for since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis in 2014.
Poland's defence minister said this week that he was confident that Polish postulates regarding the consolidation would be confirmed at a NATO summit in Warsaw this July. (nh/pk)
Source: Wall Street Journal/eucom.mil/PAP
Video Source: Eucom MediaOps