Rick Rozoff – Anti-War.com June 25, 2021
USS Porter with other ships during exercise Sea Breeze in the Black Sea, July 25, 2020. Click to enlarge
NATO’s military arm, Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe (SHAPE) in Mons, Belgium (marking its 70th anniversary this year), issued a press release on the Sea Breeze war games that will begin in the Black Sea on June 28. Coming as they do immediately on the heels on what may have proven a dangerous contretemps between a British guided-missile destroyer and a Russian border vessel and attack aircraft off the coast of Crimea, this year’s Sea Breeze, the 25th iteration, is fraught with more significance and will be monitored more closely on the Russian side than its predecessors.
The NATO fact sheet repeats what has been disclosed by the co-sponsor of the exercise, the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet, and other sources:
– That over 30 (32 by one count) nations will participate in the event, more than in any previous version
– That those nations are situated on all six populated continents
– That 5,000 troops, 32 ships, 40 aircraft and 18 special operations and diving units will be involved
The Ukrainian navy is the co-host of the exercise; only three months after its current and first president were openly claiming there was a danger of world war as a result of Russian military maneuvers – in Russia.
The NATO release of June 25 contains a paragraph that could not be more transparent in disclosing the geopolitical context within which the upcoming war games are to be conducted:
“Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea. NATO supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters. NATO does not and will not recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea and denounces its temporary occupation.”
After the encounter between HMS Defender and a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 earlier this week, the Russian government appealed to the U.S., Ukraine and NATO to postpone if not cancel this year’s Sea Breeze. It appears that plea has fallen on deaf ears.
Though the expression has often been used in the past, the world may be ready to witness a Sarajevo moment.
Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.
USS Ross in Souda Bay, Greece, shortly before sailing into the Black Sea in 2019. Click to enlarge
US missile destroyer enters the Black Sea
Kommersant – June 26, 2021 Machine translation from Russian
A US Navy missile destroyer has entered the Black Sea for the multinational exercise Sea Breeze, the US 6th Operational Fleet has announced. As previously reported, 32 countries will take part in these exercises.
“The US missile destroyer USS Ross sailed… to the Black Sea to participate in the annual Sea Breeze exercise of more than 30 countries from around the world,” the navy said on Twitter.
This week in the Black Sea there was an incident with the British destroyer Defender, which invaded the territorial waters of Russia off the Crimean Cape Fiolent. The Black Sea Fleet and the border Guard Service opened fire in the direction of the vessel. Today, on June 26, ships of the permanent formation of the Russian Navy conduct missile firing in the Mediterranean Sea a few dozen kilometers from the aircraft carrier strike group of Great Britain.
war mongering poms at it again, will they be stupid enough to start something with Russia ?
if they do Putin should use the biggest bomb he has and drop it on that precious 1sq mile
and if joek bribem is stupid enough to get involved the same for the federal reserve, if the
two clowns escalate from there Russia China Iran should flatten these two countries and
add Is,ntreal for good measure
“Supreme” Command? So we have found the supremacists at last.
The key line here: “NATO does not and will not recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea and denounces its temporary occupation.”
NATO is not a country, and it has no business making geopolitical statements.
Funny, but I was under the impression that so say democracies made these kinds of statement. If you take ‘temporary’ literally, then NATO plans to fight a war with Russia.
This is why Putin is wasting his time talking to Biden or making up with Germany and France.
All this talk about better realations is just another ploy to rub Putin’s nose in the dirt over some MI6 staged event
I said it yesterday or the day before, Russia should’ve sunk that British ship and called Boris the village idiot out, because NATO would do nothing.
This is why everyone hates the British. Britons seem to me to be rude, vulgar, stupid, unfriendly and poorly educated. I understand that Britons themselves take pride in referring to themselves as our poodle.
Could it be the world will see a replay of an “old movie” script made in Washington DC and released on television on August 2, 1964. Its titled “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident” staring Robert McNamara and Lyndon Johnson. This “tragic movie” was also known as the USS Maddox incident featuring another United States Navy destroyer. Those of us who watched it believed it was all true and the rest is real time history. Beware of what happens in August.
Maybe the world will be shown a rerun base on a very successful story line. If it happens, I am certain viewers all over the the world will believe its true just like we did almost 60 years ago.
Only this time the “real time history” events will be catastrophic.
Could it be the world will see a replay of an “old movie” script made in Washington DC and released on television on August 2, 1964. It’s titled “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident” staring Robert McNamara and Lyndon Johnson. This “tragic movie” was also known as the USS Maddox incident featuring another United States Navy destroyer. Those of us who watched it believed it was all true and the rest is real time history. Beware of what happens in August.
Maybe the world will be shown a rerun based on a very successful story line. If it happens, I am certain viewers all over the the world will believe its true just like we did almost 60 years ago.
Only this time the “real time history” events will be catastrophic.
games are just games = VIRTUAL REALITY !
like covid is a mindvirus !
Armageddon is been planned for a long time, has been awaited by scriptures, and hijacked to ‘raptures’. the zio-planner desire to cancel out world power, down size population for total slavery of goy. injected masses distracted, diseased, lockdown finally nucked . Putin has said the war won’t be only on Russian soil. sodomite cities of North America and europe have been ripping of God’s wrath.
ZATO can zuck off!!!
Never ! Never poke the Bear !
To Jo Smith–when the British refer to themselves as America’s poodle, this is a statement that is meant to shame other British into getting the country out of the subservient and ignominious position. It is some tired old rhetoric that cannot work and is called bitterness.