DoD News:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2015 – Europe faces a different and more challenging security environment than it did just a year ago, including an increasingly aggressive Russia and a surge of violent extremism, Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove said here yesterday.
Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and Allied Command Operations for NATO, told the Pentagon press corps that countries in the region have concerns about a resurgent Russia that is exercising power and influence.
“The challenge,” he said, “is global, not regional, and enduring, not temporary.”
The most visible instance of Russian aggression started a year ago with that nation’s illegal occupation of Crimea, followed by its fueling and continuing armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Seeking a Political Solution
Breedlove said the actions violate international laws and norms and that a political solution is the best way to bring the conflict to a lasting end.
But, he added, “since the beginning of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine we have seen evidence of direct, wide-ranging Russian involvement from the supply of basic military equipment to logistics, command and control, air defense, and the list goes on.”
Unidentified Russian specialized troops who first appeared in Crimea now direct and train pro-Russian separatists, Breedlove said. And evidence shows that Russia fired artillery over its border into Eastern Ukraine during the initial stages of the conflict, the general said.
Russia also has transferred more than 1,000 pieces of Russian military equipment into Ukraine, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery pieces, and other military vehicles, he noted, that have been used on the front lines against Ukrainian forces.
“What we see on the ground is a revanchist Russia that does not play by international rules or norms [and] their activities are destabilizing to neighboring states … and have a global impact,” Breedlove said…
