U.S. To Deploy F-22 Fighter Jets To Reassure East European Allies
The United States will deploy F-22 fighter jets to Europe soon to support Eastern European members of the NATO alliance unnerved by Russia's intervention in Ukraine, Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on August 24.
It would be the first deployment of the F-22 to Europe outside air shows.
The Air Force has already been using radar-evading F-22s to carry out some attacks against Islamic State sites, the first real combat air strikes by the jets.
"Russia's military activity in the Ukraine continues to be of great concern to us and to our European allies," James told a news conference at the Pentagon. "For the Air Force, an F-22 deployment is certainly on the strong side of the coin."
Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh James said the F-22's inaugural deployment in Europe would allow U.S. forces to train with NATO partners across Europe, testing the ability of the jets to communicate and fight together with the Eurofighter and other advanced warplanes.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
This ends our live blogging for August 24. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Merkel: Everything must be done to respect Minsk deal:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says everything must be done to fully implement a cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine.
She was speaking in Berlin on August 24 at a joint news conference in Berlin with French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
She said the peace deal reached in Minsk in February "hasn't been fully implemented and that's meant that there have been more and more victims."
Poroshenko reiterated that "there is no alternative to the Minsk process."
Earlier in Kyiv, Poroshenko marked Ukraine's Independence Day, warning of the need to act carefully in the next year in the face of "Russian aggression."
More than 6,400 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east since April 2014. (Reuters, TASS)