Another challenge of Vladimir Putin to NATO: Russia has deployed Tu-22M3 nuclear bombers in Crimea

The planes were installed at the Gvardeyskoye Air Base, 70 kilometers from Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, and about 600 kilometers from Bucharest, the Romanian capital, according to Viktor Bondarev, chairman of the defense and security committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament.

"The deployment of US air defense systems in Poland and Romania pose a serious challenge. In response, the Russian Ministry of Defense made the decision to install a squadron of strategic Tu-22M3 bombers at the Gvardeyskoye base. This step has radically changed the balance of power in the region, "Bondarev added. Sputnik, in reference to the missile defense shield activated by NATO in Romania in 2016 and expected to be ready in Poland by 2020.

Bondarev added that from this base and using cruise missiles, the Tu-22M3, a huge supersonic aircraft with a crew of four and the ability to launch a wide range of weapons, including nuclear devices, They can reach any point in Europe.

In addition to these strategic bombers commissioned during the Cold War and used in Syria, in facilities controlled since 2014 by the Russian Air Force. there are also the Mig-29 and Su-27 fighters, who can serve as escorts to the Tu-22ME as well as defense against enemy incursions or limited attacks.

In Crimea, there is also Bastion and Anti-ship coastal defense missile systems, Novosibirsk and Rostov-na-Donu submarines, noted the senator.

"During development of the military potential of the region, we have focused not only on the deployment of warships, but also on the construction of coastal defense facilities "Bondarev said in reference to work done in the Baltic Sea peninsula since the annexation.

"The Black Sea Fleet is today a serious and powerful bulwark in southwestern Russia"He added.

In March 2014 the Russian Federation launched a military operation to occupy the Crimean peninsula, belonging to Ukraine, a country at the time in full revolution and facing the emergence of pro-Russian separatist groups on its eastern border.

After the occupation ordered by Putin and carried out without shedding blood,and organized a controversial referendum in which the inhabitants approved, without minimum guarantees, the annexation of their territory by Russia.

Ukraine categorically rejected the measure and claimed to be the victim of an invasion, and the international community joined its demand and rejected the Kremlin's ambitions. Europe and the United States even imposed economic sanctions on Moscow.

The conflict is seen as aThe germ of the recent escalation of tensions between Russia and the West, especially because of the approach taken in recent years Ukraine has done with Europe, seeking to be part of both the European Union and NATO,

But at the same time of annexation, Ukraine had to face the separatists who created the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk with arms and support from Russia and even today, the country is experiencing a situation of tension and conflict in the east.

On Monday, Putin went to Crimea to celebrate the five years of annexation of this strategic territoryo which for decades was the basis of the Black Sea fleet of Russian and Soviet navies, which the country lost after the independence of Ukraine in 1991.

His visit also comes a few months after the Kerch Strait incident, the last episode of tension between Moscow and Kiev when three Ukrainian ships and their 24 crew members were captured by the Russians when they tried to reach the ports of their country by crossing the waters of the disputed Crimea.