IGOR GIELOW
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)
In the midst of a crisis with the West due to the War in Ukraine, Russia flexed its military muscles in the Arctic region, one of its main strategic borders, this Monday (18).
Around 10,000 Navy personnel participated in launching Vulkan, Granit and Onix cruise missiles at simulated targets in the Bering Sea, which separates its territory from Alaska, a North American state that was sold by the Russians to the USA in 1867.
The exercises were conducted in the Chukotka region and also in the Chukchi Sea, which lies above Bering in the Arctic Circle. The missiles were fired from land, ships and submarines, in a demonstration supervised by the Navy commander, Admiral Nikolai Ievmenov.
The declared objective of the maneuver was the “protection of the northern sea route”, one of Vladimir Putin’s priority projects. Since the acceleration of the melting of Arctic ice in the summer due to climate change, commercial transport has been facilitated between Russia’s ports in the Barents Sea, in the far east of the country, and China, passing through the polar circle.
Russia already operates the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, and with fewer obstacles, plans have been made to increase commercial exchange with the vital ally in Cold War 2.0 against the US and its Western allies.
By demonstrating military capabilities, Moscow seeks to remind adversaries that it intends to guarantee security on that route. Last year, Putin said he would spend the equivalent of US$150 billion by 2035 on developing port infrastructure along the Arctic route – the region has already gained the world’s only floating nuclear power plant.
Last month, at a meeting of the Brics bloc (with Brazil, India, China and South Africa) which he attended virtually to avoid being arrested due to the order of the International Criminal Court, the Russian president stated that new hydrocarbon export terminals are being built – there are already large natural gas exploration projects in the region, such as Iamal.
Also on Monday, Russia intercepted a US Navy P-8A spy and patrol plane near its airspace in the Barents Sea. A MiG-31 fighter from the Northern Fleet, based at the sea route’s exit port in Murmansk, was used in the action.
The P-8A, the main model of the type in the USA and several countries, turned around. In recent weeks, this had happened at least three times with an identical plane from the Norwegian Air Force, which neighbors the Murmansk region.
Such interceptions are an almost daily reality at points of friction between large and medium powers.
With the war, the Black Sea saw an explosion in aerial activity, with the inherent risks made clear in the collision between a Russian fighter and an American drone at the beginning of the year. Baltic, Arctic, Middle East, South China Sea, Taiwan Strait see frequent action.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the conflict remains at a high temperature. Over the night from Sunday to Monday, local forces said they shot down all 17 cruise missiles launched against their territory, as well as 18 of 24 suicide drones. There were explosions in several parts of the country, and at least four people died.
There have been no reported attacks in the Danube River region, where Russian drone debris has fallen in neighboring Romania, a member of the Western military alliance NATO. The country, however, says that such incidents do not constitute an attack, which would further escalate the ongoing crisis.
This Monday, Bulgaria, another NATO member on the shores of the Black Sea, claimed to have located a drone armed with explosives on one of its beaches. It was unclear whether he fell or had been swept away by sea currents, and it was also unclear whether he was Russian or Ukrainian.
In Kiev, the government follows the change in Defense command, with the change of six deputy ministers in the department. Two weeks ago, the incumbent, Oleksii Reznikov, was replaced after wear and tear resulting from Ukrainian difficulties in the counteroffensive launched in June and several cases of corruption.
Since then, Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has focused on more spectacular actions, such as the attack that damaged a Russian ship and submarine undergoing repairs in a dry dock at the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol last week.
Furthermore, after advertising that it was close to a more decisive advance in the south of its front against the invaders, Kiev now appears to have focused on trying to reconquer Bakhmut, a bastion in the Donetsk region (east) that the Russians had taken in May.
This Monday (18), Zelenski’s Armed Forces claimed to have broken a defense line close to the city. The Russian Defense Ministry disputes this, saying it continues to repel attacks from rivals.
Whatever the reality, the fact is that time for the Ukrainians is running out, given that the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn rains are expected to begin in perhaps a month or less, obstructing troop and armor movements. The time to win some prize and maintain Western support for the Ukrainian generals is now.
The Russians, in turn, have been betting on their resistance and advances further north, waiting for the arrival of bad weather to begin a bombing campaign with long-range missiles similar to last year, aiming to leave Ukraine without power during the winter months.
The post Russia launches missiles in maneuver and intercepts US plane in the Arctic appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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