U.S. Special Forces spotted in Ukraine

A unit of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command has been spotted inside Ukraine after photographs were posted online on Twitter.

A two CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and Lockheed MC-130J Commando II transport aircraft assigned to the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command were spotted at Vinnytsia Airbase, Ukraine on 16 September.

The photos come from Konoplyaniy Dzhmelik’s twitter account.

According to Ukrainian officials, U.S. Special Forces take part in the “Joint Efforts 2020” and “Rapid Trident 2020” military exercises. These joint military exercises are held as resistance to Russia’s strategic exercise “Caucasus 2020”, through which Russia is accumulating troops in occupied Crimea.

“Bearing in mind the unpredictability of decisions, first of all, of the political leadership of the Russian Federation and, of course, the military-political leadership of the RF Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are taking certain measures to prevent and repel possible actions by the RF Armed Forces. I know that members of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence made a trip to the Kherson region, where they had the opportunity to see for themselves what is really happening there,” stated by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Taran during an hour of questions to the Government in the Verkhovna Rada.

“At the same time, taking into account the accumulation of troops under the pretext of preparing for the strategic exercises “Caucasus 2020”, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces plans at the same time for the last decade of September to conduct strategic command and staff exercises “Joint Efforts 2020”, – said Taran.

“It is also envisaged to ensure the exchange of data on air and ground conditions, including using AWACS E3-A aircraft and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles,” he also said.