The U.S. and its allies must step up their efforts to counter Russian aggression in the North Atlantic due to the Kremlin’s demonstrated ability to exacerbate tensions in the strategic hot spots while stopping short of all-out war, the head of the Navy’s recently reestablished 2nd fleet said Wednesday.
Moscow’s ability to ratchet up the tensions in Ukraine following the seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait over the weekend is just the latest example of President Vladimir Putin’s ability to press the U.S. and its allies without crossing the final line, U.S. officials say.
Moscow’s efforts to expand its military presence in the Baltics has inflamed tensions in the region to levels not seen since the end of World War II. The Cold War standoff in the region is “a similar environment [to where] we are in today” in the North Atlantic, Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis told the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Since the 2nd Fleet was revived in August, top Navy officials have “spent the last two months thinking about the problem” of significantly increasing U.S. naval presence in the North Atlantic and tying that into the Pentagon’s renewed focus on countering near-peer competitors such as Russia and China, Adm. Lewis said.
“The Russians are adept at staying at that region. … They operate pretty well at that level,” he said. “We have been heretofore been reactive, not proactive.”
The latest crisis between Moscow and Kiev showed no signs of easing Wednesday after half of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained off the captured vessels were sentenced to two months in prison for illegally entering Russian waters. Kiev, backed by Washington and a number of Western capitals, says its ships were in international waters and the attacks were unprovoked.
“It was obviously a flagrant violation of international law. I think it was a cavalier use of force that injured Ukrainian sailors, it was contempt really for the traditional ways of settling these kinds of concerns,” Defense Secretary James Mattis said Wednesday of the incident.
Russia effectively annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and is accused of aiding pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine.
Russia’s actions in the Kerch Strait were “quite comparable with the annexation for Crimea,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis told reporters before bilateral talks with Mr. Mattis at the Pentagon on Wednesday. “It goes against the legal status of Crimea, but also the principles of the sea regarding the open seas,” he added.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin again laid the blame for the incident squarely on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, saying Wednesday the leader had orchestrated the entire provocation to bolster his sagging popularity ahead of Ukrainian elections next year.
During the televised speech, Mr. Putin also announced plans to deploy additional anti-aircraft and missile defense systems to Russian-occupied Crimea.
Mr. Poroshenko toured a military training center Wednesday in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia, one of the areas where martial law was imposed, The Associated Press reported. Speaking to reporters as smoke billowed from a nearby shooting range, the camouflage-clad president pledged “not to allow the enemy to attack Ukraine” and announced a hike in salaries for servicemen, according to the AP.
Mr. Putin and President Trump may meet on the sidelines of this week’s Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires. Mr. Trump said he might skip the meeting in light of the Kerch Strait incident, but Russian officials said Wednesday they believed the meeting was still on.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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