Russian bomber patrols to reach Gulf of Mexico

Moscow • In a show of military muscle amid tensions with the West, Russia will send long-range strategic bombers on regular patrol missions across the globe, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, a top official said Wednesday.

The announcement by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu came as NATO's chief accused Russia of sending fresh troops and tanks into eastern Ukraine.

"Over the last few days, we have seen multiple reports of large convoys moving into Eastern Ukraine," said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. "We assess that this significant military buildup includes Russian artillery, tanks, air defense systems and troops." His statement called the situation a "severe threat to the cease-fire."

Moscow denied the allegation as unfounded, but Shoigu also said the dispute with the West over Ukraine would require Russia to beef up its forces in the Crimea, the Black Sea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in March.

Shoigu said Russian long-range bombers will conduct flights along Russian borders and over the Arctic Ocean. "In the current situation we have to maintain military presence in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, as well as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico," he said.

Shoigu would not say how frequent the patrol missions would be or offer any other specifics.

A senior U.S. military official said Russia has not previously flown actual bomber patrols over the Gulf of Mexico, including during the Cold War.

Long-range bombers have been in the area before but only to participate when the aircraft stopped overnight in South or Central America. During the Cold War, other types of Russian aircraft flew patrols there, including surveillance flights and anti-submarine aircraft.

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to call this a Russian provocation. He said the Russians have a right, like any other nation, to operate in international airspace and in international waters.

Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers were making regular patrols across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans during the Cold War, reaching areas from which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles could be launched at the United States. But that stopped in the post-Soviet economic meltdown.

The bomber flights have resumed under President Vladimir Putin's tenure, and they have become even more frequent in recent weeks, with NATO reporting a spike in Russian military flights over the Black, Baltic and North seas as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier this year, Shoigu said that Russia plans to expand its worldwide military presence by seeking permission for navy ships to use ports in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere for replenishing supplies and performing maintenance. He said the military was conducting talks with Algeria, Cyprus, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, Seychelles, Vietnam and Singapore.

Shoigu said Russia also is talking to some of those countries about allowing long-range bombers to use their air bases for refueling.

Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network, a London-based think tank, said, "The more instances you have of NATO and Russian forces coming close together, the more chance there is of having something bad happening, even if it's not intentional."

On Monday, the European Leadership Network issued a report that found a sharp rise in Russian-NATO military encounters since the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea. Three of the nearly 40 incidents, the think tank said, carried a "high probability" of causing casualties or triggering a direct military confrontation: a narrowly avoided collision between a civilian airliner and a Russian surveillance plane, the abduction of an Estonian intelligence officer and a large-scale Swedish hunt for a suspected Russian submarine that yielded no result.

In September, the report said, Russian strategic bombers in the Labrador Sea off Canada practiced cruise-missile strikes on the U.S. In May, the report said, Russian military aircraft approached within 50 miles of the California coast, the closest such Russian military flight reported since the end of the Cold War.

Russia-West ties have dipped to their lowest point since the Cold War over the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russia insurgents in Ukraine.

Fighting has continued in the east, despite a cease-fire agreement signed between Ukraine and the rebels signed in Minsk, Belarus, in September.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said Wednesday that in the past two days "We have seen columns of Russian equipment, primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense systems and Russian combat troops entering into Ukraine."

Breedlove wouldn't say how many new troops and weapons have moved into Ukraine or specify how the NATO obtained the information.

The Russian Defense Ministry quickly rejected Breedlove's statement as groundless.

Breedlove said the Russia-Ukraine border is "completely wide open," and "forces, money, support, supplies, weapons are flowing back and forth."