Russia continued its military presence in the Black Sea over the weekend, amid tensions between Washington and Moscow, with two more warships and 15 smaller ships taken to the waterway.
Two Russian ships, capable of carrying tanks and armored vehicles as well as troops for the coastal attack, sailed through the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey on Saturday, Reuters Reported.
More naval reinforcements – including ships descending from the Baltic fleet – are expected to arrive in the Black Sea in the coming days to support the thousands of troops and armored vehicles already present near Russia’s eastern border with Ukraine .
The Biden administration last Thursday investigated sending two US warships into the Black Sea after warning the Kremlin to “stay away for its own good” for deployment.
The U-turn came shortly after the White House banned Russia for its interference in the 2020 presidential election and for the SolarWinds hack that infiltrated the computers of hundreds of government agencies and private sector businesses.
A senior administration official said that the administration did not want the already tense situation in the area to be “out of control”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the sanctions by expelling 10 US diplomats and threatening to be carried through other retaliatory moves as part of an alleged showdown between the two superpowers.
Until this fall, Putin cut off access to the Kerkh Strait last week to foreign warships.
The strait connects Russia and Crimea, which Putin illegally canceled in 2014, triggering a round of sanctions from the US and its European allies.
Since then thousands of people have died in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatist troops.
Leave a Reply