NATO chief: Russia trying to prove ‘they are still a great power’

NATO’s military chief says Russia is trying to prove to the West that “they are still a great power,” by sending fighters and bombers into European airspace.

“My opinion is that they’re messaging us,” said Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander (Europe) at a Pentagon briefing Monday. “That they are a great power and that they have the ability to exert these kinds of influences in our thinking,”

Breedlove’s comments come as NATO officials sound alarm over an increasing number of Russian incursions over Europe.

{mosads}NATO officials said Thursday they had detected and monitored four groups of Russian bombers and tankers conducting “significant” military maneuvers in European airspace. The “sizable” Russian air forces “represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace,” they added. 

Breedlove said the Russian incursions have become more frequent in the last year, but he said last week’s flights were “more provocative.” 

“What you saw this past week was— was a larger, more complex formation of aircraft carrying out a little deeper, and I would — I would say a little bit more provocative flight path,” he said. 

There were more than 19 instances of Russian aircraft in European airspace in a 24-hour period last week, CNN reported. 

Breedlove said NATO reacted swiftly to the incursions last week and the situation was resolved in a professional manner. 

He added that U.S. officials have not spoken about the recent incursions with their Russian counterparts.

Breedlove did not confirm reports that a Russian submarine had been spotted in Swedish waters, but he said such intrusions have been seen before during the height of the Ukraine crisis.

“I have not seen more provocative actions at sea in the last few days,” he said.

“But if you remember, as we first started having the issues in Ukraine, we saw some increased and occasionally more provocative actions at sea, not only in the Black Sea but off the north coast in the Baltics with one of our exercises up there, and even in the Pacific Command areas, we had some — some actions at sea.” 

“So … their reactions and their actions are sort of uniform across both land or in air and at sea,” he added.

Swedish officials believe a Russian submarine entered its waters and have tried to track it in recent days, according to reports.

Breedlove also said NATO would not recognize elections carried out by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine on Sunday.

There is also no sign of Russia backing down in Ukraine, where it continues to support pro-Russian rebel groups despite Western sanctions.

He said seven Russian battalion task groups remained on the border with Ukraine, and that some have moved closer during the elections, but Breedlove declined to give an estimate on troop numbers. 

Breedlove said Russian forces were still supplying the separatists with training and equipment and that approximately 250 to 300 Russian troops are inside Ukraine.