Top US General compares tensions with Russia to height of COLD WAR ahead of showdown with Russian counterpart
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford in stark warning as jets buzz US destroyer, spy ship stalks American coastline and Trump accuses Russia of 'taking' Crimea
AMERICA'S highest ranking military officer has compared current tensions with Russia to the height of the COLD WAR ahead of a face-to-face showdown with his Kremlin counterpart.
General Joe Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said an immediate meeting with Gen. Valeriy Gerasimov is "absolutely critical" while strains between the two superpowers reach breaking point.
On Wednesday it was revealed that Russian jets buzzed a US destroyer docked off the Romanian coast in a blatant show of force slammed by Navy officers as "unsafe and unprofessional".
And a 200-crew Russian spy ship armed with surface-to-air missiles reached as close as 30 miles to the Connecticut coastline — and a key US submarine base.
At least two deadly cruise missiles have also been developed and deployed in Russia according to US administration officials, in direct breach of international treaties.
And President Trump, left reeling from explosive allegations that his campaign team were in "regular contact" with Russian spooks in the run up to last year's election, blasted Russia for "taking" Crimea in an unprecedented Twitter rant.
Russia has since hit back, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying coolly: "We don't return our territories".
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Speaking to , Iraq War veteran Gen. Dunford said that the face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart was "absolutely critical".
And in a chilling statement revealing the depth of the strain, he added: "I'm a believer in keeping lines of communication open no matter what.
";Even in the 1980s, we had a red phone, we talked to the Russians.
"So military-to-military communications, regardless of how difficult the relationship may be at a given time ought to be something that you can do.”
They are due to meet in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday.
Along with discussing the currently non-violent stand-offs, they are expected to talk about Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin's ramping up of bloodshed in eastern Ukraine.
There pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow are mounting a bloody independence campaign against the pro-Western Kiev government — seen to be an attempt to repeat the Crimea debacle.
In 2014 a Kremlin-backed coup installed a new government on the Black Sea peninsula, annexing the territory into Russian control.
Yesterday, in response to claims of strong ties with Russia, President Trump ramped up his rhetoric and signalled he would be tough on Moscow.
He wrote on Twitter: "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?"
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later responded equally harsh, saying: "We don't return our territories. Crimea is a territory of the Russian Federation".
The Kremlin has also tried to play down its cruise missile capabilities after a report, quoting senior US administration figures, said Russia had developed more deadly nuclear-ready rockets.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "No one has officially accused Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty", according to Russia's TASS news agency.
"Russia remained and remains committed to its international obligations", he added.
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