HOW THE DYING BIRDS TURNED INTO SUKHOI FIGTHER JETS

Whenever North Macedonia is praised, something happens that is obviously designed to focus the public attention away from its historical, full-fledged membership in the NATO Alliance.  Now that the disinformation narrative of March 27 (the day the Republic of North Macedonia became a full member of NATO) that lied about birds in North Macedonia dying from 5G has already been debunked, we are instead seeing a tweet coming straight from the Russian Embassy in Skopje with more disinformation on the day US planes flew over Skopje to welcome North Macedonia into NATO.  Just a coincidence …?

Original title: BOMB! SEE THE REACTION OF PUTIN! NATO AIRCRAFTS WHICH WERE FLYING OVER OUR COUNTRY HAVE TRIED TO GET CLOSER TO RUSSIAN TERRITORY!

Printscreen from the article published on mkdpress.site, anonymous web site registered outside of MKD domains,
regularly publishing disinformation and glorifying Putin

On May 29, 2020, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, citing “high officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense”, published an article entitled “Russian fighter jets scrambled to intercept US bombers over the Black Sea”. In the text it states that “Su-27P and Su-30SM fighters from the Air Defense Alert Quick Reaction Forces of the Southern Military District were scrambled to intercept the targets,” over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, allegedly heading towards Russian borders. A video of a Russian Flanker intercepting a B-1B  published by the Russian Ministry of Defense was used to promote the event.  This news was then overtaken by Russia Today and tweeted as information by the Russian Embassy in Skopje.

Kremlin actors and the disinformation

On May 29 the Russian news agency Russia Today published an article with the “video” of the interception that happened, claiming that “The jets approached the US bombers at a “safe distance,” with the move resulting in the B-1Bs reversing their course…”. Within the same day, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, published an article explaining “details” about the interception that happened during the Bomber Task Force mission that was conducted by the US and Allied Forces. As a source, TASS refers to an unknown high official of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Shortly after, the Russian Embassy in Skopje has tweeted about this event on its official twitter account.

Within minutes after this tweet, the headline of the “bombastic” text writes about the alleged reaction of Russian President Vladimir Putin to “NATO’s aircraft flying over our country” because they allegedly “tried to get closer to the Russian territory”. This article is one of the few that is without text, containing a screenshot (17:41) from the tweet of the  Russian Embassy to North Macedonia. The web site mkdpress.site is an anonymous website registered outside of MKD domains, regularly publishing disinformation and glorifying Putin.

About the long-duration strategic Bomber Task Force mission

According to the press release of the United States Air Forces,  on  May 29, 2020, “two B-1B Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, conducted a long-range, long-duration strategic Bomber Task Force mission throughout Europe and the Black Sea region”. Gen. Jeff Harrigan, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa commander, stressed that “the integration of our strategic bomber presence across Europe proves that the U.S., alongside any ally or partner, stands ready to deter, and if needed, can employ these capabilities together”. According to Gen. Tod D. Wolters, U.S. European Command commander, The Bomber Task Force missions “demonstrate to our NATO Allies, including our newest member – North Macedonia – that these strategic missions enhance the readiness and training necessary to respond to any potential crisis or challenge around the globe.”

This marked the first time that a Bomber Task Force mission integrated with Ukrainian Su-27 Flankers and MiG-29 Fulcrums and Turkish KC-135s. The flight also included integration and interoperability training with Polish F-16s and MiG-29s and Romanian F-16s and MiG-21s, which provided escort and combat patrol overwatch in the Black Sea region. Additionally, the B-1s met up with Greek F-16s doing air policing over North Macedonia, in order to do an overflight of Skopje.

About the disinformation

As it can be seen from the photos, during the entire training mission for Bomber Task Force Europe and the overflight of Skopje, the B1B Lancers were constantly escorted by Allied fighting jets. Also, what is noticeable from these photos is that the B1s flew in pairs during the entire flight.

On the video published by the Russian Ministry of Defense, only one B1 bomber can be seen intercepted by Russian Sukhois.

The very article from TASS is inconsistent. In the text, there are few obvious conclusions like, the US Bombers flew over international voters, at a considerable distance from the Russian border on a mission that was transparently announced. Therefore, the wording that was used like, identifying the targets, interception, undiscovered by the radar control, makes this article manipulative twisting the facts and misleading the public. Without checking the event from a credible source, the readers may get an impression that there was a serious incident over the Black sea airspace. In order to strengthen this disinformation narrative of “Russian Military Superiority,” the Russian Ministry of Defense published a video that obviously belongs to another event from the past, since there are a number of planes, which were part of the exercise, missing in the footage.

The provocation

The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Skopje has used this event to provoke the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia, picturing it as an incident. In its Twitter post, among others, it tagged the Ministry of Defense of North Macedonia. This provocation came on the day when NATO allies were saluting North Macedonia’s accession to NATO.

Russia is well-known for its provocations towards sovereign states and its violations of others’ controlled airspaces. For example, in March 2020, Russian bombers were intercepted by the UK’s RAF over Ireland for violating the international airspace controlled by the Irish Aviation Authority.  According to NATO, in 2019 alone Russian aircraft were intercepted over European airspace nearly 300 times.

Taking into consideration Russia’s role during the pre-referendum period, as well as all the statements made by Kremlin officials and Russian diplomats in North Macedonia and the region, it appears that the NATO membership of this country is something that continues to trouble and will for the time to come. Besides the membership of North Macedonia in NATO, there are two other things related to this mission that cause Russia’s unease. The first overflight of the Black Sea region with an escort by Ukrainian Air Force fighter jets and the fact that despite the cooling in the relations between Washington and Ankara, Turkey’s Air Force took part in the aerial refueling of the aircraft. This type of exercise demonstrates the strong unity of the NATO members and the very strong bond with non-NATO countries in Europe and the world.

Whenever North Macedonia is raised up, something happens that is clearly aimed at focusing the public’s attention from its full-fledged, historic membership in the NATO Alliance. Now that the disinformation narrative of March 27 (the day the Republic of North Macedonia became a full member of NATO) that lied about birds in North Macedonia dying from 5G has already been debunked, we are instead seeing a tweet coming straight from the Russian Embassy in Skopje with more disinformation on the day US planes flew over Skopje to welcome North Macedonia into NATO.

From all above, it can be concluded that no violations of any protocol or international norm occurred, except for the effort of Kremlin and the Russian state-owned media outlets to manipulate and misuse the entire event.

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