Russian pilots in Syria play "dangerous games" with US aircraft - Air Force

Representative of the US Central Command Colonel Mike Andrews noted that in August, Russian fighters were repeatedly approaching US aircraft and coalition forces over Syria, including several times at high speed, forcing US pilots to respond. According to him, as a result of several such passes, Russian planes were much closer than 1000 feet (about 300 meters) from American fighters.

At the same time, according to the agreement of the parties, the aircraft should keep a distance of several kilometers. "Under the Russian-American agreement, at least a few miles from each other should be aircraft," said the US Air Force Commander Lieutenant General Alex Grinkevich. Meanwhile, the Russian side accuses American aircraft of the same. On August 19, TASS reported that US F-35 aircraft had flown in dangerous proximity to Russian fighters.

"August 19 from 06:08 to 06:16 in the ET-Tanf area at an altitude of about 9,000 meters there was a dangerous rapprochement of two F-35 fighters with a pair of Su-35 Su-35 aircraft, which were planned for planned flight along the southern border of Syria", - The message says. At the same time, it was added that Americans allegedly violated the protocol in the region 14 times a day in the region of 2019. In response, Andrews denied the information provided by the Russian side.

"There was no incident when US aircraft were approaching Russian aircraft and behaving escalationally and dangerous," he said. Viewers in this connection say that the US is accusing Russia of provocative behavior over Syria almost from the very beginning of its operations in this country.