NATO Starts Flights over Romania and Poland to Monitor Ukraine

NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (right) has declared support to Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (left) at a conference held in Brussels on March 6, Photo by EPA/BGNES

A surveillance drone belonging to NATO performed flights over Romanian airspace on Tuesday near the border with Ukraine.

Romanian Defense Ministry announced that the British unit is part of an exercise aimed at raising patrolling levels, BalkanInsight has reported.

Similar flights have begun in Poland, which has a long common border with Ukraine.

AWACS (Airborne Early Warning and Control) have radars that can survey an area of up to 312 000 square kilometers. 

Russia's actions in Ukraine, where the autonomous region of Crimea is taking steps toward secession, are of concern to the Balkan countries.

Romania, which is also part of NATO and has a 694-kilometer-long border with Ukraine, has called on Russian troops to withdraw from the Crimean peninsula and has declared it recognizes Ukraine's new leadership as legitimate.

Authorities in the capital Bucharest even signed on Monday an agreement boosting military ties and enhancing cooperation in the field with the government in Kiev.

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