Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

Three nuclear-capable bombers deployed to Europe this week for large-scale military exercises near Russia, the Strategic Command announced Friday night.

The B-52s from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, are currently operating from a base in Britain and joined maritime naval exercises in the Baltic Sea called Baltops 15, the largest naval exercise by NATO forces in the region this year. The exercises are being held on and above international waters in the Baltic Sea and in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—the Baltic states—and Poland.

All four nations fear Russia’s military aggression in Crimea and continuing destabilization in eastern Ukraine will be followed by Moscow’s use of military force against them. The Baltic states last month asked NATO to permanently deploy up to 5,000 troops to the region to deter Russian aggression. Poland also wants a permanent NATO military presence.

Russian generals told U.S. officials in March during a meeting in Germany that Russia would take destabilizing actions against the Baltic states if NATO troops are stationed there. Russia threatened to conduct a “spectrum of responses from nuclear to non-military,” the Times of London reported, quoting a participant at the meeting.

The Russian generals compared the situation in the Baltics to the conditions in Ukraine prior to the annexation of Crimea. The U.S. bomber deployment to Europe also comes amid a sharp increase in Russian long-range bomber flights in both Europe and North America, including close flights within U.S. and Canadian air defense zones in recent months.

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