Russia’s Defense Ministry anno8unced on Tuesday that they are planning to send “more than 10” warplanes to the Crimean Peninsula as part of a “permanent deployment.” Those planes are expected to arrive by the end of the week.



Those deployments come amid growing tension between Russia and Ukraine, and following a recent maritime incident in the Sea of Azov. Russian officials are citing concern of an upcoming Ukrainian “armed provocation” in Crimea as part of the decision.



Russian FM Sergey Lavrov was deeply critical of Ukraine, saying they would “regret” carrying out any planned provocations against Russia. He added that the “Ukrainian regime has full Nazi and neo-Nazi characteristics.”



While Ukraine is constantly talking up military confrontations with Russia, and usually presenting it as the beginning of World War 3, in practice their military is far smaller than Russia’s, and any such efforts would be unlikely, as NATO seems not to be committed to joining Ukraine in such a war.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz