NATO says it is set to deploy three surveillance planes to Romania next week to perform reconnaissance missions, strengthening Romania’s eastern flank and to “monitor Russian military activity.”
In a statement on Friday, the military alliance said that the three of Airborne Warning and Control System planes (AWACS) will be sent on Tuesday to an air base near Romania’s capital, Bucharest, on a mission expected to last several weeks.
According to NATO’s spokeswoman Oana Lungescu, AWACS aircraft, which belong to a fleet of 14 usually based in Germany, are “capable of detecting planes hundreds of kilometers away, making them a key capability for NATO’s deterrence and defense posture.”
Each AWACS aircraft can typically stay in the air for eight and a half hours at an altitude of 9,000 meters (30,000 feet). In Addition, it can monitor an area as large as Poland while flying and increase its flight time by air-to-air refueling.
Around 180 military personnel will be stationed at Romania’s Otopeni Air Base to support NATO’s AWACS aircraft.....More Below
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/01/13/696267/Russia-NATO-spy-planes-AWACS
Ambassador Andrey Kelin said Moscow would treat NATO soldiers on the ground as a security threat
Russia will treat the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine as a threat to its security, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said.
The diplomat rejected plans by the so-called Coalition of the Willing to send “peacekeepers” to Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached with Russia.
“We will not allow [the deployment] of any NATO member state’s troops on the territory of Ukraine because it will be another line of attack against Russia,” Kelin said in an interview with Channel 4 News aired on Wednesday. “We understand that Ukraine wants guarantees. We also need guarantees,” he added.
The diplomat said the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian soil would be unacceptable. Asked about a Financial Times report that Ukraine and its European backers had agreed to deploy Western troops in the event of a violation of a potential ceasefire, Kelin said such plans were “dead.”
Kelin...
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has begun a sweeping round of layoffs that will eliminate roughly one in three newsroom jobs, marking one of the most severe workforce reductions in the paper’s history.
Staff were informed on Wednesday that the cuts are part of what management described as a “broad strategic reset,” a move that will shutter entire departments, sharply reduce international coverage, and significantly restructure local and editorial operations.
Emails sent to employees on Wednesday morning indicated that about 300 of The Post’s roughly 800 journalists are expected to lose their jobs. Several staffers described the scale of the cuts as a “bloodbath.”
Employees were told they would be notified individually of their status and that those laid off would receive benefits through mid-April.
“These moves are painful,” Executive Editor Matt Murray said during a staff-wide call. “This is a tough day.”
Entire sections dismantled
According to Murray, the ...
Pentagon
Telaviv is reportedly concerned that Trump could reach a deal with Tehran without ordering military strikes
A senior Israeli military delegation led by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir made a secret visit to Washington over the weekend amid intensifying tensions over Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and a growing US military presence in the region.
According to Israeli and US media reports, Zamir met with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and other senior US defense officials at the Pentagon to present sensitive intelligence, discuss military options against Iran and attempt to shape ongoing diplomatic contacts between the Trump administration and Tehran.
The visit, which had not been publicly disclosed at the time, comes as Israel is growing increasingly concerned that US President Donald Trump could ultimately strike a deal with Iran focused narrowly on freezing uranium enrichment while leaving Tehran’s ballistic missile program largely intact and ...
