NATO countries are increasingly sounding the alarm about the direct threats they face from Moscow’s forces.
Russian forces threatened to shoot down French planes patrolling international airspace over the Black Sea, said Sébastien Lecornu, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, on Thursday February 22.
This announcement is a new sign of the increasingly aggressive behavior of Moscow, which continues its invasion of Ukraine.
Sébastien Lecornu did not give specific details about the French flights or planes involved in the threat.
However, he said the incident demonstrated that Russia was returning to an attitude “particularly aggressive” reminiscent of the behavior of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“A month ago, to give you a very concrete example, a Russian air traffic control system threatened to shoot down French planes in the Black Sea while we were in an international free zone where we were patrolling”he assured on RTL radio.
“Russia’s behavior in 2024 has nothing to do with what we saw in 2022 and, obviously, before the aggression in Ukraine”added the minister. “It is explained by the fact that Russia is in difficulty on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
Colonel Pierre Gaudillière, a spokesperson for the French army, explained that Sébastien Lecornu was referring to an incident in mid-November, which involved one of the four giant AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control) surveillance planes. System) from France.
Pierre Gaudillière described the incident as unprecedented for a French flight in this region.
“It was a French AWACS flying over the international waters of the Black Sea. During a radio exchange, it was threatened by the Russians.”
“It was a particularly aggressive radio exchange”added Pierre Gaudillière. “It’s a first”.
On the edge of conflict
French air force pilots regularly patrol NATO’s eastern flank, part of efforts by the 31-nation military alliance to bolster its defenses since Russia launched its invasion in large scale of Ukraine will be two years ago this Saturday.
French flights include long-range patrols carried out by AWACS surveillance aircraft.
Flying over the Black Sea coast, they use their powerful radar and other surveillance equipment to observe the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
Surveillance flights help spot missile launches, aerial bombardments and other military activities in the Ukraine conflict.
Russian pilots have already made it known that they do not like to be observed.
In 2022, a Russian fighter jet launched a missile near a British Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft that was flying in international airspace over the Black Sea, the British government said.
In March 2023, the US government released a video showing a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a US Air Force surveillance drone, which then crashed into the Black Sea.
