Russian air defense forces in Crimea have been placed on high alert on the eve of planned Ukrainian missile tests near the Black Sea peninsula, the TASS news agency cited a Crimean military source as saying on Wednesday.

Moscow has protested against the plans to carry out the tests near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine says the tests, slated for Dec. 1 and 2, are legitimate and will be conducted within the framework of international obligations and treaties.

"Ukraine's firing exercises are a kind of public relations ploy aimed at creating a nervous situation, but in any case the military perceive this as a real and potential threat and Russian air defense forces in Crimea have therefore been placed on a higher state of alert," the source told TASS.

"This refers not only to ground-based units, but also to ship borne air defense forces as the ships of the Black Sea Fleet can independently repel such threats," the source said. </s> KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine’s military said its two-day missile drill starting on Thursday would avoid the airspace over Crimea, sidestepping a possible confrontation with Russia which annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Ukrainian OTR-21 Tochka-U mobile missile launch systems drive during Ukraine's Independence Day military parade in central Kiev, Ukraine, August 24, 2016. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

News of the tests had angered the Kremlin, prompting it to put its air defense forces on high alert and maneuver warships in the Black Sea.

The disagreement marked a fresh escalation in tensions between the neighbors and one-time allies, whose relations collapsed after Russia seized Crimea and backed pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Volodymyr Kryzhanovsky, a Ukrainian military official, said the exercises, which are taking place in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region bordering Crimea, were being carried out in accordance with international law.

The exercises were taking place at least 30 km (18 miles) from Crimea’s air space, “therefore it would be wrong to reproach Ukraine,” he told the 112 TV channel.

Moscow initially responded to the test plans by putting its land-based and ship-borne air defense forces in Crimea on higher alert and a Russian military source accused Ukraine of trying to create a “nervous situation.”

On Thursday Russia’s federal aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, said in a statement that it had received new coordinates for the tests that meant the “danger zone reserved for missile launches does not now affect the air space over Russian territorial waters.”

Ukraine says the aim of the tests is to bolster its defense capabilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin had ordered the defense ministry to prepare a potential military response to the Ukrainian tests.

He was responding to a question about Ukrainian media reports which said that the Russian Defence Ministry had told Ukraine’s military envoy that Moscow would shoot down any missiles and destroy their launchers if Kiev test-fired missiles in the air space near Crimea.

“In the Kremlin we wouldn’t want to see any actions by the Ukrainian side that breached international law and that might create dangerous conditions for international flights over the territory of Russia and adjacent regions,” said Peskov.

Kryzhanovsky said the Ukrainian military was ready for “any developments”.

Russia held large-scale war games across its southern military district in September, including Crimea. </s> The missiles would come as close as about 18 miles to Crimean airspace, according to a Ukrainian military spokesperson said.

The Ukrainian military said Thursday that Kiev had begun missile launch drills close to the border with Russia-occupied Crimean peninsula, ignoring Moscow’s threats of a retaliatory strike.

“The launches have already begun, so everything is going according to plan,” Vladimir Kryzhanovsky, chief of the southern branch of the Ukrainian military’s press, told Russia’s TASS news agency. He said the missiles would come as close as 30 kilometers, or about 18 miles, to Crimean airspace.

Russian ships from the Black Sea Fleet have reportedly moved to the west of the Crimean peninsula to provide air defense over Russian territory.

However, Ukraine has moved the high-risk zones of its missile launches westward, away from Russia’s territorial waters, a spokesman for the Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya told reporters.

“The new zones lie over international waters. The territorial waters of Russia are not affected. This zone is within Russian air traffic controllers’ zone of responsibility, but this will not affect flight safety,” he reportedly said.

This incident adds to heightened tensions between the two countries that were once allies. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Moscow’s support for separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine led to the collapse of the alliance.

Kiev has maintained that the two-day exercise is legitimate and in accordance with international laws.

“We will continue to strengthen the defense capability of our nation and continue missile tests and training,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksander Turchynov, reportedly said Wednesday.

The Russian defense ministry has accused Ukraine of creating a “nervous situation” and Crimean premier Sergey Aksyonov assured the peninsula’s citizens that the drills posed no threat to them.

“The Armed Forces [of Russia] fully ensure security of Russian citizens, including on the territory of the Crimean Republic. All our flights are performed as scheduled,” Aksyonov said.

He also accused Kiev of attempting “to play dirty tricks,” but added: “This is not dangerous for the life and health of our citizens, everything will be okay.”
• Germany-Led Coalition To Push For New Arms Control Deal With Russia </s> Kiev began two days of missile tests on Thursday, angering Russia, which has put its air defense forces on high alert saying it hopes the war games won't disrupt international flights.

"Warships of the Black Sea Fleet ... have taken up positions near Crimea's western coast for the duration of Ukraine's planned missile tests from Dec. 1-2," a military source in Crimea told RIA.

"The ship's air defense units have been put on a higher state of alert. Their equipment is designed in the first instance to shoot down heavy anti-ship missiles and cruise missiles. Together with land-based air defense units on the peninsula, the ships have thrown up a practically impenetrable shield against the enemy's rockets."

Vladimir Krizhanovsky, a Ukrainian military official, earlier on Thursday told the 112 TV channel that the exercises had begun and that everything was going smoothly.

"The tests are being carried out in accordance with international law," said Krizhanovsky. He said they were taking place at least 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) from Crimean air space. "Therefore it would be wrong to reproach Ukraine," he said. </s> The disagreement marks a fresh escalation in tensions between the one-time allies, whose relations collapsed in 2014 after Russia seized Crimea and backed pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine says the tests in its southern Kherson region, bordering Crimea, are legitimate and will be conducted within the framework of international obligations and treaties.

"We will continue to strengthen the defense capability of our nation and continue missile tests and training," the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, Oleksander Turchynov, said on Wednesday.

Russia's defense ministry has accused Ukraine of seeking to create a "nervous situation" and put its land-based and ship-borne air defense forces in Crimea on higher alert in response, Russian media reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that he did not know whether President Vladimir Putin had ordered the defense ministry to prepare a potential military response to the Ukrainian tests.

He was responding to a question about Ukrainian media reports which said that the Russian Defence Ministry had told Ukraine's military envoy that Moscow would shoot down any missiles and destroy their launchers if Kiev test-fired missiles in the air space near Crimea.

"In the Kremlin we wouldn't want to see any actions by the Ukrainian side that breached international law and that might create dangerous conditions for international flights over the territory of Russia and adjacent regions," said Peskov.

In September, Russia held large-scale war games across its entire southern military district, including Crimea, which Ukraine and most of the international community say it illegally annexed in March 2014 after street protests toppled a pro-Moscow Ukrainian president. </s> Russia has deployed a new unit armed with the advanced S-400 air-defense system in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Russian media are reporting.

Russian state media reported on January 13 that Moscow had deployed the new division outside the city of Sevastopol, where Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based.

It is the second S-400-equipped division deployed to Crimea, after Moscow based one near the northern port town of Fedosia in early 2017.

The S-400 is capable of striking airborne targets up to 400 kilometers away and ballistic missiles up to 60 kilometers distant.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian region in March 2014, prompting the United States, the European Union, and others to impose economic sanctions against Moscow.

Based on reporting by Reuters, RIA Novosti, and TASS </s> The drills involve the test firing of medium-range surface-to-air missiles, the news agency said.

"Everything goes according to the plan. There is no response from the Russian Federation. Ukrainian military are ready for any developments," Ukrinform cited military spokesman Volodymyr Kryzhanivsky as saying on Ukrainian TV.

Kryzhanivsky reportedly said the drills in southern Ukraine did not pose any threat to Crimea and that Ukraine was acting in accordance with international law.

Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said Russia would evaluate its response to the drills, Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported.

The transport ministry, Rosaviatsiya, said last week that the planned missile launches were in violation of international agreements and warned they could pose a threat to flights in civil airspace above Crimea, Russia's state-run Sputnik News reported. Poroshenko: 'No one will stop us' Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said more missiles would be launched Friday, Tass reported. "Our task is to build the air defense of Kiev and the whole of Ukraine. And no one will stop us," he is quoted as saying. Russia annexed Crimea, a territory in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, in March 2014 following tensions with its neighbor. Why is there renewed tension in Ukraine? World leaders managed to install a shaky peace deal in 2015. But violence continues in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, and 2016 has seen an increase in casualties. According to the United Nations, the conflict has claimed almost 10,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands displaced. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in October that NATO's support for Ukraine was "unwavering" and that it did not and would not recognize Russia's "illegal annexation" of Crimea. </s> Russia deployed a new division of S-400 surface-to-air missiles in Crimea on Saturday (January 13), Russian news agencies reported, in an escalation of military tensions on the Crimean peninsula.



Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, triggering economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States and a tense stand-off in the region.



The US said in December that it planned to provide Ukraine with "enhanced defensive capabilities", which officials said included Javelin anti-tank missiles.



Moscow's latest deployment represents the second division armed with S-400 air defence systems on the peninsula, after the first in the spring of 2017 near the port town of Fedosia.



The new division will be based next to the town of Sevastopol and will control the airspace over the border with Ukraine, the RIA news agency reported.



The new air defence system, designed to defend Russia's borders, can be turned into combat mode in less than five minutes, Interfax news agency quoted Viktor Sevostyanov, a commander with Russia's air forces, as saying.



Russia's defence ministry says the S-400 systems, known as "Triumph", can bring down airborne targets at a range of 400 kilometres and ballistic missiles at a range of 60 kilometres. They were first introduced to the Russian military's arsenal in 2007, the ministry added. </s> Russia’s deployment of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in Crimea, announced on Wednesday, sounds worrying. The move comes days after Russian forces fired on Ukraine’s navy in the Kerch strait, prompting western condemnation and fears of a wider conflagration. At first glance, Vladimir Putin appears to have opted for defiance and escalation.

But first glances can be misleading. All parties to the Crimea-Donbass conflict have an interest in shaping outside perceptions, and not all is what it seems. In fact, Russia has stationed three S-400 missile battalions in Crimea since 2014, when it seized and illegally annexed the peninsula. It is now adding a fourth. It is not welcome news, but it is not necessarily a prelude to all-out war.

Opinions differ about the Russian president’s motives. Western analysts suggest he is intent on blockading the Azov Sea and eastern Ukraine’s industrial ports, thereby weakening Kiev economically and demonstrating Moscow’s superior control. Russia could also be reacting to Ukraine’s plan to build a new Azov naval base. This in turn may all be part of a long-term strategy to push Nato out of the Black Sea region.

On the other hand, Putin’s domestic approval ratings are falling, hit by a row over pensions and economic problems caused by western sanctions. When Putin ordered the Crimea invasion, his popularity surged to 80%, compared to 30% the year before. Maybe he is trying to pull the same trick again. If so, it’s a dangerous game.

The motives of Petro Poroshenko are likewise open to question. Ukraine’s president warned this week of “full-scale war”, claiming to have detected a recent buildup of Russian tanks at the border. In fact, Russia started relocating army units closer to Ukraine four years ago. This led over time to a “substantial expansion of Russia’s military presence”, according to Harvard’s Belfer Center. But it’s not new.

Is Poroshenko deliberately exaggerating the imminence of the Russian threat? He faces elections in March that he is tipped to lose. Opponents suggest his emphasis on Ukraine’s endangered security, and imposition of martial law, could compromise the democratic process. Sergii Leshchenko, an opposition MP, said Poroshenko’s re-election hopes rested on a nationalist tripod: “Language, faith, army.”

Western motives are also suspect. Pentagon hawks have an interest in stiffening Donald Trump’s support for Nato in general and Ukraine (an aspiring Nato member) in particular. The Kerch confrontation highlights Putin’s repeat offending, as they see it, in eastern Europe, the Baltic, the Balkans, Syria and Salisbury. The crisis could be used to draw the US and Europe closer together at a time of transatlantic rifts – and strengthen the case for western arms sales to Ukraine, even for direct intervention.

Trump is now under pressure to cancel his G20 meeting with Putin this weekend. In Washington, this is all mixed up with the FBI investigation into Trump’s past dealings with Russia and current appeasement of Putin. Reflecting these sensitivities, the White House has mostly steered clear of the Kerch row. The US so far has not responded substantively to European calls for new sanctions or Kiev’s pleas for help.

If Putin hoped to expose western divisions and exploit Trump’s ambivalence, he has succeeded. If Poroshenko, by launching what Moscow calls a provocation, wanted to boost his political fortunes, he may have succeeded too. Or maybe it is less complicated. Maybe excitable mid-level Russian commanders simply exceeded their authority. That’s believable. And that’s how wars start.
Ukraine starts a missile test near Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, while Russia puts its air-defense and naval forces in the region on high alert.