Russia denies its planes buzzed Canadian ship near Ukraine
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Version 0 of 1. Russia and Ukraine have struck a tenuous ceasefire aimed at calming tensions along their border and in eastern Ukraine. Fighting over the weekend there underscores how uncertain it is the plan will work, but the tension has spread elsewhere, too: Canadian officials say Russian military planes buzzed a Canadian ship involved in an ongoing military exercise nearby in the Black Sea. The incident occurred Sunday, Canadian officials said. Multiple Russian planes flew low over the HMCS Toronto, a frigate involved in the multinational exercise Sea Breeze 2014, they said. The training mission began Sunday, and also involves ships from the United States, Ukraine, Turkey and Romania, according to the U.S. Navy. The exercise has been held for years, and is hosted by the U.S. and Ukrainian navies. But it comes at a complicated time, considering the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine and recent NATO accusations that Russia has flexed its muscles by sending troops and equipment over its border into Ukraine. RT, a state-controlled Russian news agency, reported Tuesday that the planes were an Su-24 and An-26. The first is a fighter jet, while the latter is a military transport plane. The planes’ flight paths ran through the region where the Toronto was, but they “did not approach the foreign warship,” Russian Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, according to RT. Canadian officials see it differently. “While the Russian military aircraft that circled the HMCS Toronto did not in any way pose a threat to the Canadian ship, their actions were unnecessarily provocative and risk escalating tensions even further,” Canadian defense minister Rob Nicholson said. The USS Ross, a destroyer, also is involved in the exercise. |