An article posted on the Russian Defence Ministry website has confirmed for the first time that Russian pilots flew sorties over Israeli territory in the days prior to the commencement of the Six Day War. Before the outbreak of the war, the armies of half a dozen Arab states were poised on Israel's borders, aiming for nothing less than the complete destruction of the Jewish state. The conventional understanding of the conflict was that Russia had spread disinformation on Israeli troop movements in order to draw the Arab nations into a battle, but did not expect a full scale war to erupt and certainly did not expect Israel to emerge victorious. Until now Russia had denied that it flew sorties over Israeli territory prior to the war, but authors Gideon Remez and Isabello Ginor claim in their new book, "Foxbats over Dimona", that Russia flew reconnaissance missions over Israel's nuclear reactor prior to the outbreak of war with the intention of destroying it. This interpretation of events has been verified in interviews with former Soviet pilots.

Quote: "However, a delighted Remez and Ginor told the The Jerusalem Post that official confirmation of the Soviet Foxbat sorties had now been published by Drobyshevsky in an article posted on the official Web site of the Russian Defense Ministry. The "extraordinary disclosure of a hitherto secret operation," they noted, "apparently was included inadvertently - in a statement that was published in a completely different context": to mark the anniversary of the test pilots' school from which one of the pilots who participated in the 1967 flights graduated. The relevant section of Drobyshevsky's article states (in translation): "In 1967, the military valour and high combat training of Col. Bezhevets, A.S. (now a Hero of the Soviet Union, an honorary test pilot of the USSR, [and] retired Air Force major-general), were demonstrated while carrying out combat operation in Egypt, [and] enabled [him] to perform unique reconnaissance flights over the territory of Israel in a MiG-25RB aircraft."

This news comes as Russia is seeking a more pro-active foreign policy, resuming its Cold War patrols, seeking to re-establish its aircraft industry and arming Arab states with advanced long range fighter aircraft and ground to air weaponry. We have seen how close the nation of Russia came to becoming embroiled in the Six Day War, and I have no doubt if it had, it would have been Russia that would have come out the loser. I guess we should have predicted that Russia would once again long for the return of Soviet Union days, for the Scriptures state that the nation will be brought against Israel in the latter days. And I believe that Russian aviation will play a major part in the coming war, for the Ezekiel 38:7,9 states that Russia will act as a "guard" to the Arab nations involved in the conflict, and will eventually "ascend and come like a storm" to cover the land.

Ezekiel 38:19-22
For in my jealousy [and] in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that [are] upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that [are] with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

Source Jerusalem Post, Bloomberg