Fear of Russian invasion
After report of displaced US submarine near Kuril Islands – USA deny Russian representation
After a Russian warship is said to have expelled a US submarine near the Kuril Islands, the US has denied the account from Moscow. The US military said the “Russian claims” were “untrue.”
Amid rising tensions with the West, a Russian warship has driven off a US submarine near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to sources in Moscow. The destroyer “Marshal Shaposhnikov” has tracked down a US submarine in Russian waters near the Kuril Islands, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow on Saturday. Exercises by the Russian Navy were planned there at the time.
After the Virginia-class submarine ignored requests to heave to, the Russian destroyer took “reasonable action” to force the boat to turn back, sources said. Details were not initially given. The submarine then left Russian waters “at top speed”. The American military attaché was later summoned to the Defense Ministry in Moscow and given a protest note.
USA contradicts information from Russia
The US military, however, said the “Russian claims about our operations in their territorial waters” were “untrue.” US Indo-Pacific Command spokesman Kyle Raines declined to comment on the exact locations of US submarines. However, he emphasized: “We fly, sail and operate safely in international waters.”
Russian troops on the border with Ukraine
The Kuril archipelago connects the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka with the Japanese island of Hokkaido in the Pacific. The Soviet Union occupied the Kuril Islands in the last days of the war in August 1945. To this day, Japan claims three islands in the southernmost part of the island chain and a group of islands also located there as belonging to its territory.
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The incident happened against the background of high tensions between the US and Russia over the Ukraine crisis. According to Western sources, Russia has massed more than 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border in recent weeks. The troop build-up and Russian military exercises in neighboring Belarus and in the Black Sea are fueling fears in the West of an invasion of Ukraine. Moscow rejects any plans of attack and at the same time accuses Kiev and NATO of “provocations”.