Balloons are floating over Ukraine, too, Kyiv authorities said this week. But this time, they appear to come from Russia and be aimed at contributing to Moscow’s war efforts, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine detected balloons with angled reflectors of radio waves over Ukraine Tuesday, Ukraine’s Air Force spokesperson, Yuriy Ihnat, said. The announcements comes just days after Ukraine’s army downed an aerial reconnaissance vehicle and balloons with reflectors Sunday, the Air Force Command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.
Russia is launching the balloons to distract Ukraine’s air defense, Ihnat said.
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“The Ukrainian Air Defense radar observes these air targets moving in air streams at a low speed. Fighter aircraft are constantly on duty in the Ukrainian sky. The situation is under control,” Ihnat said.
Neighboring Moldova briefly shut down its airspace Tuesday amid reports of an “object similar to a weather balloon” flying overhead, just a day after Moldova’s president announced knowledge of a Russian plot to stage a coup in Moldova. It’s not clear what the object was, and the government did not clarify. Ukraine’s Air Force did not confirm if it was the same as the objects flying over Ukraine.
Ihnat said it was possible the balloons could float to neighboring countries.
Russia and China have both been increasing their use of balloons in recent years, according to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“What we saw over the United States is part of a pattern where China and also Russia are increasing surveillance activities on NATO allies,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Monday.
The reports of balloons over and near Ukraine come as tensions have mounted in the United States over securing American airspace after the U.S. military downed three unidentified “objects” and a Chinese spy balloon over North America in just the last several days. The flurry of takedowns—which have relied on U.S. fighter jets and has caused the Biden administration to more closely monitor for potential “objects” in the sky— marks an unprecedented use of military force against airborne objects over North America.
Except for the Chinese surveillance balloon, it’s not clear if a foreign nation is sending the other objects over the United States, according to the Department of Defense.
But the Pentagon has admitted that it does not know what the downed objects’ purpose and capabilities are, which has raised questions from the public and lawmakers about what the U.S. policy ought to be for shooting down objects with so many unknowns. President Joe Biden has established an interagency team to assess how the country should response moving forward.
After much speculation about whether the objects represented alien activity, the White House clarified on Monday that there are no indications of alien or extraterrestrial activity linked to the objects.
The White House National Security Council suggested Tuesday that it’s possible the objects are commercial or research balloons.
"One thing we have to consider, and we believe the intelligence community is considering as an explanation, is that these could be balloons tied to commercial or research entities and therefore totally benign," John Kirby, a National Security Council coordinator, said.
But in the absence of vigorous assessments of the objects—Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that no debris from the downed objects has been recovered yet—concerns remain about surveillance or military capabilities.
The Pentagon said Sunday that it had downed one of the objects due to its “potential surveillance capabilities.” Members of U.S. Congress have raised concerns over whether the objects represent threats from foreign nations that could lead to conflict if the United States isn’t adequately prepared to detect and respond to future objects.
"My concern is that some other country has developed a capability to monitor and enter our airspace and that we are not prepared to identify it,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday. “Strategic surprise is the way a lot of wars start.”
Lawmakers from Alaska, where an object was downed on Friday, expressed concerns about monitoring capabilities as well.
“Alaska is the first line of defense for America,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told Pentagon officials last week. “Why was the state that is the first line of defense not able to keep the rest of the country from being more vulnerable when it came to collection of intelligence as [the Chinese spy balloon] flew over important installations?”
“We… need to appropriately equip our military in Alaska with the sensors and aircraft needed to detect and, if necessary, destroy everything from slow-moving balloons to hypersonic missiles,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said in a statement. “Alaska is the frontline of defense for our nation. The past few weeks have made this even more evident.”
