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Moscow permits Ukraine to make a surveillance flight over Russia

Ukraine issued an appeal to the Russian Defense Ministry March 11 to organize a so-called emergency surveillance flight over the Russian territory in the framework of the Treaty on Open Skies

© ITAR-TASS/Stanislav Krasilnikov

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Ukraine army placed in maximum operational readiness

MOSCOW, March 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow has given permission to Ukraine to make a surveillance flight in order to get convinced that any threat of military operations on the part of the Russian Armed Forces is absent, the Deputy Minister of Defense, Anatoly Antonov, told reporters Wednesday.

He said that the Ukrainian side had issued an appeal to the Russian Defense Ministry March 11 to organize a so-called emergency surveillance flight over the Russian territory in the framework of the Treaty on Open Skies.

"It is the first time a mission of this kind has been requested in the format of the Treaty on Open Skies since the moment of its signing in 1992," Antonov said. "Although we do not have any obligations on hosting the Ukrainian jet, we took a decision to permit a group of observers to effectuate this flight."

"We hope our neighbors will see the Russian Armed Forces are not conducting any activity on Ukraine's border that might jeopardize its security," he said.

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