Russia tests Trump’s nerve by ordering fighter jets to buzz US warship, sending spy ship to patrol American coastline and deploying cruise missiles – as The Donald accuses Putin of ‘TAKING’ Crimea
President being tried with series of confrontational moves as US-Russia standoff intensifies
RUSSIA appears to be testing Donald Trump with a series of highly provocative military moves — as tensions between the two superpowers reaches boiling point.
Russian jets buzzed a US destroyer with several "dangerous flybys" in a bolshie show of strength slammed by a Navy officers as "unsafe and unprofessional".
And Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin's ramping up of violence in Ukraine has threatened America's wrath — with the President saying Russia had "TAKEN" Crimea.
Four military aircraft swooped past the USS Porter as it sat docked off the Romanian coast last week, it has been revealed.
Radio operators on the Porter, which is armed with guided missiles, contacted the planes as they flew past on Friday but received no response.
Meanwhile, a Russian spy ship has slunk to just 30 miles from the American coastline.
A US official quoted by a Fox News said the ship is "loitering" near a vital American submarine base at Groton, Connecticut.
Revealing last week's squaring-up on the Black Sea, Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez said: "There were several incidents involving multiple Russian aircraft".
The European Command spokesperson added: "They were assessed by the commanding officer as unsafe and unprofessional."
One SU-24 fighter came within just 200 yards of one of the Porter, according to another U.S official who did not wish to be named.
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While the Kremlin flatly denied the incident, it is one of a number of tense standoffs in recent days.
Trump said during an unprecedented Twitter rant on Wednesday that "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia" when it was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Moscow argues that Crimea was rightfully taken into Russian control following the ousting of pro-Putin Ukranian leader Viktor Yanukovych by popular protests.
A recent increase in violence across eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels are battling for independence from the rest of the country, has been viewed by the West as further evidence of Moscow meddling in Europe.
It led to Trump blasting: "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration".
In a threat to severely toughen up on Putin, the President added: "Was Obama too soft on Russia?"
Spy ship SSV-175 Viktor Leonov, itself heavily armed with surface-to-air missiles, was first spotted yesterday 70 miles off the coast of Delaware.
It has since crept much closer, just 20 miles from the US waters boundary, according to Fox News.
Holding around 200 crew, the 300ft ship carries high-tech communication equipment able to intercept enemy messages.
Russia has also been found to have deployed deadly cruise missiles in recent weeks — a direct contravention of an international treaty.
The reported on Tuesday that a fully operational ground-launched weapon named the SSC-8 is currently placed at a testing site near Volgograd in Russia.
Another has been positioned in an undisclosed missile base in the country, according to US administration officials who spoke to the paper.
It comes as the White House is in disarray over the forced resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn.
After reports, the military veteran admitted he had withheld information about his ties to Russia, claiming he unintentionally failed to mention he had talked with the Russian ambassador about US-imposed sanctions before Trump's inauguration.
It has also been explosively claimed that Trump aides and Russian intelligence officials were in regular contact with each other in the run up to the 2016 election, according to reports.
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