NORAD Commander Concerned By Russian Military Activity
The commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) says Russia's increased military activity is jeopardizing the security of the United States and Canada.
Admiral William Gortney told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a written statement on March 12 that Russia's continued development of long-range, conventionally armed cruise missiles provides Moscow with options for a deterrent "short of the nuclear threshold."
He said the long-range cruise missiles could be launched from submarines, warships, or aircraft.
Gortney added that if current "trends" continue, NORAD will face an "increased risk in our ability to defend" the United States and Canada against Russian cruise-missile threats.
Gortney said the past year has "marked a notable increase in Russian military assertiveness" around the world, with Russian planes flying outside the country's airspace more than in any year since the Cold War ended.
NORAD is a Canadian-American command, based in the state of Colorado, whose mission is to prevent air attacks against North America and to secure its airspace.
Based on reporting by CNN
An excerpt:
KHARTSYZK, Ukraine (AP) - Seryozha colors in his drawing of a tank, lost in thought. Like many 7-year-olds in eastern Ukraine, he has trouble recalling a time before the war.
"They've always been shooting," he says, vigorously scratching with the brightest of pencils.
Yelena Nikulenko, the director of the children's home in the rebel-held town of Khartsyzk, says kids like Seryozha have been let down twice.
First orphaned or abandoned by their parents, they were then dumped by their new families when the Ukrainian government stopped paying benefits to foster families in separatist-controlled areas.
"On top of that, you have the war, the shelling, the fear," Nikulenko says. "It will be a scar for the rest of their lives, that's for sure."
The conflict that erupted in Ukraine last year between government troops and Russian-backed separatists has claimed at least 6,000 lives and displaced nearly 1.8 million people. The United Nations Children's Fund estimates that 1.7 million children on both sides of the front line have been harmed through lack of proper shelter, nutrition, medicine or schooling.
Read more here.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
