War in Ukraine: Russia threatens NATO with “direct confrontation” because of American drones in the Black Sea

Les bombardements russes continuent par ailleurs quotidiennement dans les localités ukrainiennes (illustration). MAXPPP – Nicolas Cleuet/Le Pictorium

Russia on Friday threatened Westerners with "direct confrontation", because of the "intensification" flights of American military drones in the Black Sea, off the coast of Ukraine, a few days after the first threats targeting Washington following a strike in annexed Crimea.

Moscow considers that the assistance provided to kyiv in terms of armaments, intelligence collection and identification of targets on Russian territory has made the United States and their allies from the parties to the conflict in Ukraine, which the Kremlin exacerbated in February 2022 by launching its forces to attack its neighbor.

American drone flights in the Black Sea “increase the likelihood of incidents in the airspace with aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which increases the risk of a direct confrontation between the Alliance ( Atlantic) and the Russian Federation", denounced the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release.

"NATO countries would be responsible", he warned , adding that Defense Minister Andrei Belousov had ordered the General Staff "to take measures to quickly respond to provocations".

Because, according to the Russian ministry, American drones are used "for reconnaissance and target designation for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces" by the West.

After refusing for a long time, for fear of provoking an escalation, Americans and Europeans have begun to authorize in recent weeks, under conditions, strikes with Western precision weapons on Russian territory to destroy sites and systems used to bomb Ukraine.

Tourniquet for all

Russia had already threatened the United States with reprisals on June 24, accusing it of "killing Russian children", the day after a strike in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula bordered by the Black Sea and annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The attack left four people dead, including two children, and more than 150 injured by debris from a missile shot down above a "coastal area" , according to Moscow.

The Kremlin assures that ATACMS long-range missile strikes require specialists, technologies and intelligence collected by the Americans. The Pentagon simply said on Monday that Ukraine "makes its own decisions".

Already at the beginning of June, Russian President Vladimir Putin had threatened to deliver equivalent weapons to Western enemies to attack their interests in other regions of the world.

If the Russian fleet has numerical superiority in the Black Sea, it has lost numerous ships for more than two years, targeted by naval drone attacks launched by kyiv.< /p>

Thanks to these strikes, the Ukrainian army repelled Russian warships and established a maritime corridor to export its grain. It is also trying to weaken the important military presence in Crimea, the rear base of the Russian war effort.

Faced with Ukrainian attacks, the authorities installed by Moscow in Sevastopol, headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet, asked each resident on Thursday to carry a tourniquet, an instrument medical device used to stop hemorrhages.

Ammunition

High-intensity fighting continues on the front, particularly in the east, where Russia claimed Friday the capture of a village, Rozdolivka, located north of Bakhmout .

The Russian army, on the initiative for months, also launched a new offensive in the Kharkiv region (north-east) at the beginning of May. But according to kyiv, the Ukrainian forces are in a better position thanks to the arrival of Western munitions, after months of blockage.

"The ammunition consumption ratio was 1:7 (in favor of the Russian army), today it is of 1 for 3", a source within the Ukrainian general staff told AFP on Friday.< /p>

On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he was working on a new plan to end the conflict, with the aim of it being " supported by the majority" countries around the world. But he also vowed to continue strengthening his country's military capabilities to impose a “just peace” on Russia.

Vladimir Putin put forward his own solution: that Ukraine cede five eastern and southern regions and that it renounce joining NATO. De facto a request for capitulation, rejected in kyiv as in the West.

Russian bombings also continue daily in Ukrainian localities. Four civilians were killed and three others, including "an eight-year-old girl", injured Friday morning during a strike on the small town of New York, in the east of the country, according to the regional prosecutor's office.