U.S. Imperialist-Led Brinkmanship
Increases Danger of War
Staged Provocation Against Russia in Black Sea
- Steve Rutchinski -
The U.S. and its aggressive NATO alliance with
the British war government a major player are
engaging in dangerous brinkmanship, raising the
possibility of a devastating new war as the
outcome of their constant attempts to provoke
Russia and China.
A case in
point is the reckless provocation by NATO forces
on June 23, in which a British guided missile
destroyer, HMS
Defender made a deliberate incursion
three miles into Russian territorial waters off
the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea. The
incident took place a little over a week after
NATO's summit in Brussels. There, NATO not only
ramped up its warmongering rhetoric against
Russia and China, but declared that a cyber or
space-based attack on any NATO member could,
just like an armed attack, trigger the
alliance's Article 5. If invoked, Article 5
obliges other NATO members to come to the
defence of a member country that has been
attacked -- or going by past precedents, to
jointly launch aggression against a country that
refuses to submit to U.S. dictate and is falsely
accused of attacking a NATO member, as
Afghanistan was.
On June 23, after the British destroyer ignored
both verbal warnings and warning shots fired by
Russia's Coast Guard to get it to change course,
Russian fighter jets dropped several bombs in
the warship's path, resulting in it beating a
retreat out of Russian territorial waters. The
provocation took place near the port of
Sevastapol, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is
based. This kind of brinkmanship orchestrated by
the U.S., Britain and NATO represents a serious
threat to peace and escalation of international
tensions. Such incidents can and do lead to
armed confrontations and war.
This provocation was how the U.S. chose to kick
off its Operation Sea Breeze 2021 taking
place in and around the Black Sea from June 28
to July 10. The U.S. with its aggressive NATO
alliance and NATO's so-called "partnership for
peace program," with Ukraine as the co-host, has
mobilized 5,000 troops, 32 ships and 40 aircraft
for this year's provocative, menacing war games
directed against Russia.
The first day of the military exercise saw
another provocation, with a Dutch frigate, the Evertsen,
changing course and heading toward the Kerch
Strait, an area of the Black Sea close to Crimea
that Russia had expressly closed off to foreign
warships for a period of six months beginning in
April. Russian military planes again were
scrambled to make the warship change direction
away from its territorial waters.
What Russia Said
Speaking at an international security
conference in Moscow on the same day that the
incident with Defender took place, but
before it occurred, Russian Defense Minister
Sergei Shoigu described the situation in Europe
as "explosive." He made particular mention of
the provocative activity of the warships of the
U.S. and its allies, saying it was raising
tensions and creating conditions for incidents
to occur. He said the current situation was much
more dangerous than in Cold War times.
Later, referring to the incident, the Russian
defence ministry described the British
destroyer's actions as a blatant violation of
the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
and called on Britain to investigate the actions
of the crew. It said the Defender should
be renamed HMS Aggressor or HMS Provocateur.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed this
position on June 30. "This is, of course, a
provocation staged not only by the British but
also by the Americans because the British
warship ventured into our territorial waters in
the afternoon while early in the morning, at
07:30, a U.S. strategic reconnaissance plane
took off from a NATO airfield in Greece." He
said the British destroyer's intrusion was aimed
at trying to find out, aided by the U.S.
reconnaissance plane, what Russia's military
countermeasures would be -- what facilities it
would activate, where they are located and how
they work. In view of that, Putin said, Russia
made sure its response revealed only what it
considered appropriate to reveal.
What Britain Said
Incredibly, Britain dismisses the incident as
completely innocent and outright denies the
statements made by the Russian Military and
President of the Russian Federation as untrue.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed the
destroyer was acting lawfully, pursuing freedom
of navigation in waters within 12 nautical miles
from the coast of Crimea, which he said was
sovereign Ukrainian territory, since "we don't
recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea."
British Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace also
tried to cover up the dangerously provocative
nature of the Defender's action. He lied about the
intrusion, claiming the warship was conducting
"innocent passage" through Ukrainian territorial
waters in accordance with international law, and
he lied about Russia's response to it, denying
there had been warning shots fired or bombs
dropped in Defender's path that made it
change course. This was in spite of Russia
having produced videos showing the defensive
actions it took and crew members' testimonies.
The U.S., Canada and NATO itself, despite daily
rhetoric condemning what they call Russian
aggression, have said nothing either. Their
silence speaks louder than their pro-war PR
machine in this case.
The British anti-war group Stop the War
issued a statement on June 24 in which it
denounced Britain's use of its destroyer to back
up U.S. brinkmanship, calling it "completely
irresponsible" and "a dangerous act of
aggression that has nothing to do with defence
or security." Stop the War said it was clear Defender's
crew knew the actions they took were likely to
cause a dangerous incident. They cited a report
by BBC journalist Jonathan Beale who was
embedded with the crew on the British warship.
Beale said the ship was indeed harassed by the
Russian military and that the crew were already
at action stations, with all the ship's weapons
systems loaded, as they approached the southern
tip of Crimea.
There are 32
countries from six continents participating in Operation
Sea Breeze.[1]
The Canadian Armed Forces have 24 personnel
deployed to Odessa, Ukraine taking part in the
exercise. Most of the countries involved, Canada
included, have no legitimacy to claim that
military manoeuvres in the Black Sea have
anything to do with their national defence. Like
the June 23 provocation, Operation Sea
Breeze itself puts the lie to the claims
that the NATO war exercises are "defensive" and
for preserving international peace. The same
applies to NATO's recently announced plans to
expand into the Asia Pacific, a provocation
aimed at China and a threat to the peoples of
the region. In fact HMS Defender is part
of a U.K. Carrier Strike Group heading to the
South China Sea for military drills with the
U.S. Navy and Japanese Maritime Self Defense
Forces. Before gaining notoriety for staging a
provocation against Russia the Royal Navy
announced that it had temporarily broken away
from the group to carry out its "own set of
missions" in the Black Sea.
The frequency, scale and brinkmanship of these
war exercises, with nuclear powers on the
contending sides, pose a real and present danger
to global peace and security. Canadians cannot
abide such recklessness nor the mendacity that
surrounds what U.S./NATO is up to. It must stop.
No to NATO. Canada Out of NATO.
Note
1. The U.S. Navy
has hosted Operation Sea Breeze, with
the Ukrainian Navy as co-host, since 1997.
Countries involved in 2021: Albania,
Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark,
Egypt, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece,
Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Moldova, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Poland,
Romania, Senegal, Spain, South Korea, Sweden,
Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab
Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United
States. NATO's Standing Maritime Group 2 is
also a participant.
There are 32
countries from six continents participating in Operation
Sea Breeze.[
