{"id":85491,"date":"2024-07-01T23:01:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T23:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/alert-level-raised-at-u-s-bases-in-europe-over-russian-threats\/"},"modified":"2024-07-01T23:01:07","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T23:01:07","slug":"alert-level-raised-at-u-s-bases-in-europe-over-russian-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/alert-level-raised-at-u-s-bases-in-europe-over-russian-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Alert Level Raised at U.S. Bases in Europe Over Russian Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/01dc-intel-lmfp\/01dc-intel-lmfp-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Alert Level Raised at U.S. Bases in Europe Over Russian Threats\" title=\"Alert Level Raised at U.S. Bases in Europe Over Russian Threats\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">American defense officials raised the security alert level at military bases in Europe over the weekend in response to vague threats from the Kremlin over Ukraine\u2019s use of long-range weapons on Russian territory, according to U.S. and Western officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials said that no specific intelligence about possible Russian attacks on American bases had been collected. Any such attack by Russia, whether overt or covert, would be a significant escalation of its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia has been stepping up acts of sabotage in Europe, hoping to disrupt the flow of mat\u00e9riel to Ukraine. So far, no American bases have been targeted in those attacks, but U.S. officials said raising the alert level would help ensure that service members were keeping watch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Throughout the war, U.S. officials have assessed that President Vladimir V. Putin is loath to expand the war beyond Ukraine\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But stepped-up U.S. and European aid \u2014 and the easing of restrictions on how that mat\u00e9riel is used \u2014 has caused consternation in Moscow, according to American officials. Russia\u2019s recent statements have made some American and European officials wary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ukraine has been using longer-range American missiles known as <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/10\/06\/us\/ukraine-war-missile.html\" title=\"\">ATACMS<\/a> to strike deep into occupied Crimea. The United States has also said Ukraine can use them in cross-border attacks on Russian military targets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strikes on Crimea prompted Russia to summon Lynne M. Tracy, the U.S. ambassador, to the Foreign Ministry. And on June 24, a Kremlin spokesman said any direct U.S. participation in the war that led to the deaths of Russians \u201cmust have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The U.S. decision to both provide longer-range weaponry and loosen the restrictions on using it followed a decision by Britain to provide Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. Kyiv had used those weapons to strike military targets in Crimea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strikes with the Western weaponry, particularly in Crimea, have proved effective, damaging Russian Army logistics centers and further weakening Russia\u2019s Black Sea fleet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the success of the attacks has Moscow looking for ways to deter further strikes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In recent months, Russia has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/26\/us\/politics\/russia-sabotage-campaign-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">stepped up a series of sabotage attacks<\/a> at various places in Europe. The campaign, carried out by Russian military intelligence, has at times appeared ham-handed, including a fire at an Ikea store. But NATO has repeatedly warned about the episodes, and Britain expelled the Russian defense attach\u00e9 after a fire at a warehouse in London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Military bases, which provide training, intelligence and other support for Ukraine, could be a logical subsequent target, even if there is no specific intelligence that Russia is considering such an attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Safeguarding military bases and the people who live and work on them falls under what the Pentagon typically calls force protection. Beyond things like simple fences or guards protecting base gates, that consists of a series of increasingly restrictive security measures that can be carried out in proportion to a given threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Most U.S. military facilities around the world are at the second-lowest such setting, called force protection condition \u201calpha,\u201d which includes measures like directing officials to test their communications equipment and increasing spot checks of vehicles and people entering bases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the opposite end of the spectrum is condition \u201cdelta,\u201d set when an attack is imminent or underway. That level shuts down nonessential functions like base schools, directs the searching of all vehicles at entry gates, adds more guards and heavily restricts the movement of nearly everyone on a given base.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As of now, American military bases in Europe are at condition \u201ccharlie,\u201d the second-highest level and the highest level of readiness that can be reasonably sustained over a long period of time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the weekend, Cmdr. Daniel Day, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, said the military was asking personnel to \u201cremain vigilant and stay alert at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a statement on Monday, European Command said officials would not describe the measures they were taking to protect their operational security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOur increase in vigilance is not related to any one single threat,\u201d the command said in the statement, \u201cbut out of an abundance of caution due to a combination of factors potentially impacting the safety and security of U.S. service members in the European theater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Eric Schmitt<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/01\/us\/politics\/us-bases-alert-level-russia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American defense officials raised the security alert level at military bases in Europe over the weekend in response to vague threats from the Kremlin over Ukraine\u2019s use of long-range weapons on Russian territory, according to U.S. and Western officials. Officials said that no specific intelligence about possible Russian attacks on American bases had been collected. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/01dc-intel-lmfp\/01dc-intel-lmfp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[670,8073,896,2941,11533,1461,9705,221],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85493,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85491\/revisions\/85493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}