As if on cue, Vladimir Putin responded to the airstrike President Trump ordered on a Syrian airfield (our very own Nina covered it here) which is where the most recent deadly chemical attack in that nation originated from. Putin responded by diverting a Russian battleship to protect the Syrian coast from U.S. warships. This is in return for the U.S. lobbing some fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles at the al-Shayrat military airfield near the city of Homs yesterday. The Admiral Grigorovich guided missile frigate, the ship that has been called to the area,  is no cruising yacht. Russia’s most up-to-date class of frigate is known as the Krivak IV class of frigates in the Western world. Requiring a crew of 200 men and measuring 124.8m it can be at sea for thirty days at a time. Armed with a 100 mm gun, and land attack (aka Cruise missiles) as well as torpedo tubes, and an anti-submarine rocket launcher, she is a force to be reckoned with.

Putin called the American airstrike an “illegal act of aggression;” ironic, don’t you think, considering Vlad’s past with Ukraine? He also used it as an excuse to tear up an agreement reached with the U.S. to avoid mid-air clashes between Russian and American fighter jets over Syria. Evidently, Vlad’s pal Bashir had lots to say about the good old USA after the airstrike took out his airfield by calling the U.S. a “Partner to ISIS” according to Al-Assad’s spokesman. His representative also added that Trump’s missile strikes were “reckless and irresponsible” and accused the President of being duped by a “false propaganda campaign” about the massacre.

Trump did not sound like he had been duped in his press conference where he discussed his reasoning for ordering the strike. I am not one to usually support Trump, and in this case I have serious questions about the fallout considering the Russian leaders response, but I cannot disagree with his logic when he says “No child of God should ever suffer such horror“.

It is pretty bad when the Germans and the French are the ones sounding the alarm for everyone to calm down and be rational, which is exactly what happened when French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault held a press conference alongside German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. They even called out Putin on his hypocrisy and asked Russia to come to the table to discuss this rationally to avoid further armed conflict.  Considering what horrors both nations have seen in past World Wars, however, I am willing to say that they are right. Russia needs to put on their big boy pants and talk this out. Otherwise, I fear what may come out of this very volatile situation in a very unstable region.