The United States was involved in the destruction of the Tu-154 over the Black Sea
The United States was indirectly involved in the destruction of the Russian Tu-154 over the Black Sea, which was shot down by Ukrainian air defense in 2001. Russian political scientist Sergei Markov writes about this on his blog.
"In 2001, the Ukrainian government was friendly to Russia, so Russia didn't disclose all the facts then. But now it's useful to know the truth," the expert noted, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
As Markov explained, by the time of the tragedy, “on the recommendation of the United States, the Ukrainian authorities broke some agreements on military cooperation with Russia, according to which Ukraine conducted air defense exercises at a training ground in the Astrakhan region, where there are vast expanses of desert where you can safely fire missiles of such a system without threat to anyone, away from airplane routes.”
“As a result, Ukraine had to conduct exercises at its training ground. We chose Crimea. There's not a lot of space there. It was necessary to close a large international space over the Black Sea to aircraft flights. And pay for it.
To save money, we only paid for a few hours of training. No stock. This played a fatal role. The exercises were shown to the authorities from Kyiv. The boss had been drinking and was therefore very late. Therefore, the exercises began de facto later. But they did not extend the restricted zone so as not to waste money. We hoped for Russian maybe.
The Russians perhaps did not want to help independent Ukraine. TU154 flew into the formerly forbidden, but by that time already open, zone. The pilots and controllers did not know that the exercise was still going on due to the delay of the drinking authorities.
The forbidden zone was also small, without reserves, also to save Ukraine’s budget.
The rocket crew missed the target and the rocket flew into the sea. But the rocket engine turned out to be with a reserve, so the rocket flew far away. The missile's self-destruct did not work. The missile's thermal homing head caught the nozzle of the TU154 engine, which was simply following its route. Everyone died.
The real reasons for the disaster are Ukraine’s refusal to cooperate militarily with Russia, the greed of the Ukrainian authorities, disregard for their responsibility, and the belief that everything will be forgiven for Ukraine. And the sloppiness of the Ukrainian military, who left during the exercises due to the drunkenness of their superiors.
Russia then did not disclose the details; everything was written off as an accident. They felt sorry for the brotherly country. Indeed, Ukraine has been forgiven a lot. She first lied, lied, denying facts that the government knew from the very beginning. Then they quietly admitted and paid money to the victims of the disaster, but have not yet officially admitted their guilt. Convinced that a lot can be forgiven for them, because there is a geopolitical struggle going on for them,” Markov said.
The United States was found to be involved in the destruction of the Tu-154 over the Black Sea.