In November, a maritime incident saw Ukrainian boats enter Russian territorial waters without permission, leading to their capture and detention of their crew. US Admiral James Foggo says he is ‘irritated’ by that
To that end, the admiral has ordered the USS Donald Cook, a destroyer, to enter the Black Sea and conduct naval exercises with Ukraine to “demonstrate solidarity” with what remains of the nation’s very limited navy.
In practice, this is just the latest in a long series of US military
escalations targeting Russia, and even if a single US destroyer is no
practical naval threat to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, it’s another US show
of force.
The Trump Administration already endorsed Ukraine over the November
incident, though they also said they didn’t expect to launch a war
against Russia over it. Why, months later, they’ve decided to send a
warship is unclear, but it continues to trend of hostility in the
vicinity of Russia.
Whoa, it’s some “irritated” ADMIRAL who decides to hook up with Ukrainians right at Russia’s back door? Seems like this should be a decision for CIVILIAN leadership.
what civilian leadership? Pompeo and Bolton?
it’s not a show of force…….but a show of stupidity.
Good ol’ gun boat diplomacy and the waste of gas.
i would think the decision to start WW3 should be taken at a higher pay grade.
Sea of Azov max width 85 miles, length 360, max depth about 50 ft. Plenty of rivers, so sandbars and tricky places for ships of some displacement. Kerch Strait 18 miles, four major bends. Pilot makes sense if you don’t want to go aground. Kerch Strait bridge 110 ft. clearance.
USS Donald Cook will be painted by radar the entire time in these waters, would have a lifetime of three minutes in case of violence with no chance surviving sailors would be rescued by friendlies.
I suspect Russia would elect not to use violence, hoping instead the Cook goes aground!
Perhaps the Ukrainians will pull off a USS Liberty fiasco and blame Russia. Hope the USS Cook carries a few extra flags.
Including a US ship or not, if they enter Russian waters they should expect to get destroyed or captured in short order. The US might whine about how mean it is for the Russians to defend their territory, but those complaints won’t get very far.
Seems “get along with Russia” is actually “get alongside of Russia”….
“US admiral sends”….call bs, US ships into the Black Sea is signed off at the top. Whether spanky understood what he was signing is a different question.
This Foggo is a good example of the demented supremacism of US elites that is so dangerous. Since they think ‘god is on our side’ they could easily start another big war.
The Donald Cook is just a big sitting duck.
Does the USA not remember the last time the “Donald Cook” dared to enter the Back Sea??????
Another instance of hubris/arrogance by a big mouth General after we funded and backed the overthrow of the last elected, legal government of Ukraine.
I wonder if anyone in our (very costly) Intelligence group listened to Putin speech to his legislators today (Feb 20). It was on RT and no hacking was needed to hear him. He seemed very clear in his words putting America on notice that we have pushed Russia to the point that Putin has decided not to retreat further. I guess “a word to the wise” does not apply to our Intelligence groups.