US spy drones gather intelligence in Ukraine: Reports

US spy drones have been flying over Ukraine and gathering intelligence about troops and weapon deployment there, according to flight tracking services.

The Reuters news agency on Tuesday cited the Flightradar24's tracking data as showing two US military unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk spy drones had flown over Ukraine.

The drone took off from a naval installation in the Mediterranean Sea to Ukraine, where they had navigated in repeated loops in the north and the east of the country to perform spying activities known as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations, according to flight tracking services. The unmanned aircraft departed early in the morning from the US Navy installation at Italian Air Force Base Sigonella in Sicily, then headed east over Bulgaria to the Black Sea, edging Crimea, circling of the coast of Sochi, and headed back to make a tour of Ukraine, trackers reported.

US RQ-4 Global Hawk UASs (Unmanned Aerial Systems) belonging to the 9th Operations Group/Detachment 4th of the US Air Force deployed to Sigonella, Italy from Beale Air Force Base, California, USA have been carrying out espionage for the US military commands, EUCOM, AFRICOM and CENTCOM since 2011, media reported. Since 2015, the drones have started doing spying operations in Ukraine.

The drones' flights can be detected not only by ground radars, but also by commercial ADS-B receivers used by online flight tracking services such as Flightradar24, PlaneFinder and Global ADS Exchange.

Blinken: Russian invasion of Ukraine ‘could begin at any time’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a Russian invasion against Ukraine “could begin at any time.”

Meanwhile, Russia and the West remain locked in a standoff over the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Kiev is neither a NATO member nor part of Russia's Collective Security Treaty Organization; however, it sides with the Western coalition and receives aid from those countries.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said, “NATO firmly believes that tensions and disagreements must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, not through force or the threat of force,” adding the organization will respect Ukraine's decision to apply for membership in NATO, or not.

To resolve the years-long crisis, months ago Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency chief, Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, predicted Russia would launch an invasion on the country that could include airstrikes, artillery and armored forces attacking it from land and sea. Kiev’s western allies have kept repeating the prediction.

Russia, which due to its security concerns is against Ukraine joining NATO, has amassed more than 100,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine over the past few months. Furthermore, the Kremlin has strongly warned the West against repeatedly sounding the alarm over a “Russian invasion” of Ukraine, warning the countries the predictions might have dire consequences.

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