Meanwhile u.s and russia still at odds
after talks over ukraine tensions. russia and the united states gave no
sign that they had narrowed their
differences on ukraine and wider
european security and talks in geneva, as
moscow repeated demands that washington
says it cannot accept.
Turkey is said to have deployed its best
attack drones to help ukraine. Reports
from russian media said that a bay
rocker tv2 drone had been spotted off
the west coast of crimea, flying from
turkey.
According to the reports, the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicle took off
from the turkish airbase in Dallaman and
reached Ukraine's Zapariz Gia, moving
along the western coast of the black sea. It said the drone carried out the nato
mission to monitor russian troops
movement around crimea.
Indeed in recent months nato has carried
out such operations last month both u.s
and uk deployed their reconnaissance
aircraft to the region.
In late december britain's RC-135 rivet
joint aircraft designed to absorb
electronic signals were deployed to the
region. Many news outlets reported at the time
that the move was aimed at monitoring
russian forces around the crimean
peninsula.
From NATO's point of view, the russian
forces presence in crimea poses a threat
to the stability in the region. The
annexation of crimea transformed
russia's previously weak strategic
position in the black sea.
It ended the restrictions imposed by
ukraine on modernization of the black
sea fleet and the fleet's main harbor at
sevastopol. It ensured russian De Facto
control over the carrick strait and
consequently the sea of Azov and it
expanded russia's De Facto shoreline on
the black sea from 421 kilometers to 1,200 kilometers, adding almost 500
kilometers of coastline in the Azov Lea.
Although these territorial annexations
are not recognized in international law
russia has swiftly moved to consolidate
control through a militarization of the Crimean Peninsula and a buildup of its
black sea fleet.
Russia is preparing to deploys more
missile system to Crimea
According to information from the
russian news agency, Moscow is preparing
to send new missile divisions to crimea
to strengthen the combat effectiveness
of its troops in the region. Russian move
comes a day after turkish drone by
rocker tv 2 was reportedly spotted off
the west coast of the peninsula.
The 22nd army corps deployed in crimea
will be complemented with a rocket
battalion. Commander of the southern
military district Alexander Divornikov
said in an interview with the military
bulletin of south russia newspaper, "We will reinforce the 22nd army corps
deployed in crimea, forming a rocket
battalion within it," he said.
Russia will strengthen the 22nd army
corps stationed in crimea, forming a
completely new missile division. The
415th training center training of junior
specialists will be fully deployed. These military units are part of the
russian southern military district, which
is one of the four administrative
military units of the armed forces of
the russian federation in southwestern
russia.
Some Russian troops stationed abroad
such as military bases in South Essecia, Epcasia and Armenia are also part of the
southern military district.
The Russian armed forces also will set
up two new divisions in the annexed Crimea, forming of 19th and 20th motor
rifle divisions in 58th and armies
respectively will end 2022, YvONNE cough
said.
One more motor rifle regiment and
one tank battalion will be formed in
each of them accordingly. The 415th
training center of junior specialists
will have the full compliment. All that will enable increasing combat
capabilities of the district the
commander added. Meanwhile, US and Russia still at odds
after talks over ukraine tensions.
Russia and the United States gave no
sign that they had narrowed their
differences on ukraine and wider
european security and talks in Geneva as Moscow repeated demands that Washington
says it cannot accept.
"Russia has mass troops near Ukraine's
border while demanding that the U.S led NATO alliance rule out admitting the
former soviet state or expanding further
into what moscow sees as its backyard."
"Unfortunately, we have a great disparity
in our principled approaches to this. The US and Russia in some ways have opposite
views on what needs to be done," Russian
deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryankov
told reporters after the meeting.
Talks lasted for more than seven hours
in Geneva on the past days, Ryankov said
russian officials had the impression
that the american side took russian
proposals very seriously.
Deputy u.s secretary of state Wendy Sherman said, "we were firm in pushing
back on security proposals that are
simply non-starters to the united states."
Sherman told reporters she had offered a
number of ideas where our two countries
could take reciprocal action that would
be in our security interest and improve
strategic stability.
Petroborkovsky, a senior fellow at the
democratic initiatives foundation said Russia had three goals in geneva's
negotiations, among these goals is to
undermine trust in the united states
among the european countries and to show
defiance of any future sanctions.
Borkowski told Al-Jazeera Russia also wanted to demonstrate if
sanctions are implemented that it will
retaliate selectively through european
nations, like Germany or Italy reducing
or cutting off gas supplies, he said.
But the most important goal right now
for russia is to discourage the United States from arming central european
nations that joined NATO. Werkowski added, his message was made today very clearly.
