December 26, 2018 (Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty) More than a dozen advanced Russian fighter jets have
arrived at a base in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Moscow occupied and
annexed in 2014. The Reuters news agency cited witnesses who saw the Su-27 and
Su-30 fighters arriving at the Belbek air base on December 22.
The move comes amid high tensions
between Ukraine and Russia across the region, which were raised on November 25
when Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels and their crews near the Kerch
Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Ukraine was preparing a "provocation"
in the area before the end of the year.
A Russian Su-27
SM fighter jet lands at Belbek military airport outside Sevastopol, Crimea, in
November 2014.
Kyiv, for its part, has charged that
Russia was building up military forces along the two countries' mutual border.
President Petro Poroshenko has said Russia has moved "more than 80,000
troops, 1,400 artillery and multiple rocket launch systems, 900 tanks, 2,300
armored combat vehicles" and hundreds of aircraft to the area.
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