After Russian attack aircraft repeatedly buzzed a Navy warship earlier this week, the USA and Russia have responded with what amounts to diplomatic shrugs.
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Multiple Russian warplanes have carried out a series of “aggressive” flight maneuvers in the Baltic Sea in close proximity of the U.S. Navy ship the USS Donald Cook, according to footage released by the U.S. military on Wednesday.
According to the officials, the passes were “unsafe, potentially provocative” and “could have caused an accident”.
The following day a Russian helicopter flew over the ship at a low altitude, before Russian jets resumed flybys.
The manoeuvres began Monday while the destroyer was located about 70 nautical miles from Kaliningrad in worldwide waters. Afghan News Agency on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook.
“As a safety precaution, flight operations were suspended until the Su-24s departed the area”, it said.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the USA “raised our concerns with the Russians” through a military attaché at the US embassy in Moscow.
On April 11, two Russian Su-24 attack planes made numerous passes while the destroyer, on routine deployment in support of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation operations, was conducting operations with an Allied helicopter, a Polish Navy SH-2G.
US sailors who viewed the incidents said the jets were flying “wings clean”, meaning there were no visible bombs or armaments, a defense official told defensenews.com, a USA publication that reports on military matters.
Russian planes also flew about 20 passes near the ship April 11, coming within 1,000 yards and about 100 feet above the ship, officials said. The jets, identified as Su-24 striker jets, were said to circle “as close as 30 feet” at one point in time.
“The freedom of the seas of the USA destroyer does not cancel the freedom of the air for the Russian aircraft”, Konashenkov added.
Russian Federation was like meh, the United States is overreacting.
The official said the commanding officer of the Cook believed that Tuesday’s incident was ‘unsafe and unprofessional, ‘ but cautioned that a formal USA military review of the matter was under way.
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The USS Donald Cook is docked in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania, Monday, April 14, 2014.
