Military deployment in Ukraine is growing: Russia has sent 15 ships to the Black Sea, the United States will add troops in Germany and the United Kingdom is mobilizing planes

Russia transferred 15 ships from Caspian to Black Sea amid further escalation of tensions with the United States, who reported sending two warships in the area in show support for Kiev given the increased Russian military presence on the border with Ukraine.

According to a military statement, the movement of the fifteen ships, of which three gunboats and eight landing craft, is framed in a “Routine” procedure for reviewing the capabilities of the Russian armed forces after the end of the winter season.

The expedition of Russian ships takes place in the middle of the heightened fears of an imminent invasion of the Donbass region from Moscow, because it accumulates troops and weapons at its borders with Ukraine. According to the commander of the Ukrainian army, General Ruslan KhomchakRussia has deployed at least 28 battalion tactical groups in the border region with its neighbor and in the Crimea. That roughly equates to about 20,000 to 25,000 troops.

In addition, intelligence reports have shown that the Russian military is deploying tanks, rocket artillery and short-range ballistic missiles 150 miles from its border with Ukraine.

Russia said on Tuesday that conducts “military exercises” near its border with Ukraine in reaction to NATO “threatening” activities. The Vice-Chancellor of Russia, Sergei Riabkov, directly accused United States Yet the NATO to make Ukraine a “powder keg”, because of the risk of a generalized conflict.

The United States’ response: ships and air patrols over the Black Sea

In a sample of the gravity of the situation, this Tuesday the Secretary of Defense of the United States Lloyd Austin met his counterpart in Berlin, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauersu, and at the end of this meeting announced the dispatch of 500 additional troops to Germany.

In addition, United States last Friday communicated to Turkey through diplomatic channels that will send two warships to the Black Sea according to the Treaty of Montreux (1936), which gives Turkey control of the Bosphorus Strait.

US ships will remain in the area until May 4, according to the communication from Washington.

The United States also continues to send reconnaissance planes into international airspace over the Black Sea. and last Wednesday two American bombings have carried out missions in the Aegean Sea.

More, had the British Air Force to join overflights, with patrols in Black Sea region near Romania. With the jets Typhoon, troops from RAF Expeditionary Logistics Squadron No. 1 and Mechanical Transport Squadron No. 2 will leave British bases.

The UK Ministry of Defense said flights are a routine procedure, and that the mission is part of an annual air patrol activity of the NATO, Operation Biloxi.

NATO is increasing the pressure

In this context, NATO issued a warning to Russia on Tuesday due to escalating tensions in Ukraine, while two senior US officials arrive in Brussels to discuss the situation and hold consultations on next steps.

“The concentration of troops by Russia [en la frontera con Ucrania] it is unjustified, unexplained and deeply worrying ”, said the secretary general of the military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, in Brussels.

For the official, Russia “He must stop accumulating troops in and around Ukraine, abandon provocations and start an immediate de-escalation ”.

Stoltenberg made the remarks during a press conference with the Chancellor of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. The latter traveled to Brussels with the clear objective of gaining support from NATO, a military alliance which Ukraine requested to join in 2008.

That day, the head of American diplomacy, Antony blink, and the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, they have meetings in Brussels on the agenda, including a Blinken meeting with Kuleba.

During a press conference with Kuleba at NATO Headquarters, Stoltenberg noted that “in recent weeks, Russia has moved thousands of combat-ready soldiers to the border with Ukraine, in the largest accumulation of Russian troops since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 ”.

Therefore, he added, “We stand by our call to end their support for activists in eastern Ukraine.”

Russia “must respect its international commitments (…). We do not and will not recognize the illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea by Russia ”Stoltenberg said.

(With information from AFP, EFE, Reuters)

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