Russian bomber jets practiced cruise missile attacks last week during a key NATO summit held in Wales.
According to Bill Gertz of The Washington Free Beacon, two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying a route across the northern Atlantic.  The route took the bombers near Iceland, Greenland, and then northeastern Canada.
Advertisement
The report of the exercise comes in the wake of Russian General Yuri Yakubov, a senior Defense ministry official, calling for the motherland to change its 2010 military doctrine to identify the United States and NATO as enemies, outlining conditions for a pre-emptive strike against either entity.
He tells Russian news agency Interfax:
“In my opinion you need to carefully consider the forms and methods of the operation of Aerospace Defence, in close cooperation with strategic nuclear deterrence forces, the Strategic Missile Forces, strategic aviation, and the Navy.  Thus it is necessary to study the conditions under which Russia could use the Russian strategic nuclear forces (SNF) pre-emptively.
“A couple of years ago the United States and NATO at all levels states that the North Atlantic bloc, the West in general are not the enemy of Russia.  And what do we see now?  Deployed against us is a real information war, with Russia deliberately shaped as a foe of the West, with far reaching goals.
“And most importantly, our borders are roughly base [sic] the United States and NATO.  These global changes and challenges, in my opinion, should be clearly reflected in a revised military doctrine.”
Gertz reports that no American or Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to stop the the bombers because they stayed outside the North American Air Defense Identification Zone; and additional details of the incident that transpired of the Labrador Sea, located between Greenland and the Labrador Peninsula, could not be obtained, except that it took place during the NATO summit in Wales held Thursday and Friday.
The statement NATO released from the summit said in part:
Advertisement
“We condemn in the strongest terms Russia’s escalating and illegal military intervention in Ukraine and demand that Russia stop and withdraw its forces from inside Ukraine and along the Ukrainian border.  This violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is a serious breach of international law and a major challenge to Euro-Atlantic security.
Gertz also reported that at least 16 bomber incursions by the Russians were conducted in the northwestern United States and Canadian air defense zones during the course of ten days, the largest incursions of any kind since the end of the cold war.
Russian-owned site Russia Today headlined this story “Russian strategic bombers reportedly practice nuclear missile strike against US.”
A ceasefire between Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels was agreed upon Friday and was “shaky,” though still holding as of Monday, according to Ambassador Thomas Greminger of Switzerland, Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.  The Wall-Street Journal reported that Russian-backed rebels have released 1200 prisoners after the cease-fire began.
Photo credit: Anton Gvozdikov / Shutterstock.com