The United States and its allies conducted an "extraordinary" flight over Ukraine under the Open Skies Treaty in a show of solidarity following the Kerch Strait incident, the Pentagon said in a press release on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2018) The United States and its allies conducted an "extraordinary" flight over Ukraine under the Open Skies Treaty in a show of solidarity following the Kerch Strait incident, the Pentagon said in a press release on Thursday."Today, the United States and Allies conducted an extraordinary flight under the Open Skies Treaty," the release said. "The timing of this flight is intended to reaffirm US commitment to Ukraine and other partner nations.�"
The State Department's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance said in a Twitter statement that the flight was conducted by an American OC-135 surveillance aircraft, adding that allies Canada, Germany, France, Romania and the United Kingdom participated in the Open Skies Treaty mission.
The flight comes amid heightened tensions over the recent incident between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait.
"Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait is a dangerous escalation in a pattern of increasingly provocative and threatening activity," the Pentagon said. "The United States seeks a better relationship with Russia, but this cannot happen while its unlawful and destabilizing actions continue in Ukraine and elsewhere."
The United States stated earlier it supports Ukraine in the naval incident in the Kerch Strait that occurred late last month.
On November 25, three ships of the Ukrainian Navy - Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany Kapu - breached the Russian border, entered Russian territorial waters that were temporarily closed, and began moving toward the Kerch Strait, which serves as an entrance into the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian vessels and their crew were detained by Russia after failing to respond to a lawful demand to stop.
In response to the incident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree declaring martial law in several Ukrainian regions located near the Russian border and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to introduce martial law in Ukraine. Putin said the provocation could be linked to Poroshenko's low approval rating ahead of the presidential election campaign set to start in late December.
