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Russian military

Russia ready to fire if foreign subs and ships intrude

Russia ready to fire if foreign subs and ships intrude
epaselect epa09752236 Russian Navy diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don sails in the Bosphorus direction as Black Sea in front of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, 13 February 2022. Russian Navy?s ships transiting Black Sea for massive drills amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN

MOSCOW, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A senior Russian military official said on Monday that Russia was ready to open fire on foreign ships and submarines that illegally enter its territorial waters, the Interfax news agency reported.

Any such decision would, however, be taken only at the “highest level”, Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff, was quoted as saying.

The comment came two days after Moscow said a Russian naval vessel had chased away a U.S. submarine in Russian waters in the Pacific. The United States denied it had carried out military operations in Russian territorial waters.

Tensions between the two countries are running high, with Washington warning that Russia could attack Ukraine at any time. Moscow denies any such intention, despite massing more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, and has accused Western governments of hysteria.

Interfax quoted Gadzhimagomedov as saying Russia was able to adequately counter the U.S. fleet in the Black and Baltic Seas but did not have enough ships and plans to do so in the far east at the moment.

All of Russia’s military fleets have been carrying out exercises in recent weeks across vast areas including parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Alexander Marrow and Mark Trevelyan)

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  • Meirion Griffiths says:

    The real threat to Putin and his kleptocratic regime isn’t having Nato on its borders; it’s having a thriving free and fair democracy as a close neighbour that will inevitably influence the Russian population. It was only five weeks ago when Putin deployed troops to Kazakhstan to quell country-wide protests that threatened the corrupt and autocratic regime running that country – and the rise in gas prices was just the last straw. So I don’t just feel for Ukrainians; I also feel for the Russian population living under the yolk of a thug like Putin and his ex-KGB gangsters.

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