Moscow – Tensions between Russia and the West have risen this week, with Russia organizing several military exercises in the Black Sea and gathering thousands of forces on the Ukrainian border. In a clear sign of cooling relations, the US ambassador to Moscow confirmed that he is leaving the country for “consultations” back in the US
More than 20 Russian ships took part in the latest exercises along with Su-25SM3 attack aircraft, as part of a control of fleet forces, the Russian Black Sea Fleet said on Tuesday.
Russia also said it was closing airspace over parts of Crimea and the Black Sea, saying the areas had been “temporarily declared dangerous to aircraft flights,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing an official notice sent to pilots.
Troops on the Ukrainian border
More than 100,000 Russian forces have gathered on Ukraine’s border and in Crimea, said the office of the EU’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, after a briefing by Ukraine’s foreign minister.
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Crimea is the peninsula that was unilaterally annexed outside Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin in 2014. His government now considers it Russian territory, and while the US and Europe have refused to recognize the takeover, the Russian military has firm control over land outcrops in Black Sea.
“It is the largest military deployment of the Russian army on the Ukrainian border ever,” Borrell said. He initially said that Russia had gathered more than 150,000 troops in the region, but his comments were later corrected without being detailed.
The satellite imagery company Maxar provided nearly a dozen images on Tuesday, saying it showed increased movement and an influx of Russian military equipment into numerous locations in Crimea, Ukraine and near the common border in recent weeks.
Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
The build-up took place amid growing hostilities in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists were locked in a hot war with the US-backed Ukrainian army and Europeans since 2014. Rising violence in eastern Ukraine has raised international fears. explosion in the so-called frozen conflict.
While US military officials have yet to see anything suggesting that Russia is preparing for an imminent cross-border incursion into Ukraine, the United States, Britain and European states have criticized Moscow for military accumulation.
The Kremlin has rejected all calls for the withdrawal of troops and equipment, saying Russian forces are free to move on Russian territory as it sees fit and respond to what Moscow calls “provocative” NATO alliance movements near its borders.
Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow was not responsible for the rising tension. He called on other countries to refrain from “mass anti-Russian psychosis.”
Warships in the Black Sea
Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had closed navigation in parts of the Black Sea to foreign military ships and other official ships from mid-April to late October. The movement was condemned by the West.
SERGEY PIVOVAROV / REUTERS
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price called it “another unprovoked escalation in Moscow’s ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine” and “particularly worrying amid credible reports of Russian troops in occupied Crimea and around the borders of Ukraine ”.
Two British warships were to sail to the Black Sea in May, the Sunday Times reported on Tuesday, citing high-ranking naval sources in Britain. The deployment is meant to show solidarity with NATO allies in Ukraine and the United Kingdom, the newspaper reported.
According to the report, a Type 45 destroyer armed with anti-aircraft missiles and a Type 23 anti-submarine frigate will detach from the task force of the Royal Navy carrier in the Mediterranean Sea and sail through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. RAF F-35B stealth planes and Merlin submarine fighter jets will be ready for the task force’s pilot, carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the newspaper said.
The Turkish government announced last week that the United States plans to deploy two warships in the Black Sea, but later said the Pentagon has canceled the deployment. U.S. officials have never confirmed or denied that the deployment was ordered, but a Pentagon spokesman said U.S. ships had previously operated in the international waters of the Black Sea.
The US ambassador is leaving
US Ambassador John Sullivan has said he will return to Washington this week for consultations after Russia’s foreign ministry suggested he do so amid a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
“I think it is important for me to speak directly with my new colleagues in the Washington Biden administration about the current state of bilateral relations between the United States and Russia,” he said in remarks published by the Moscow embassy.
Trump-appointed Sullivan has said he plans to return to Moscow in the coming weeks, ahead of any meetings between Presidents Biden and Putin.
His departure follows Russia’s response to the latest round of US sanctions, announced last week, which included the expulsion of 10 US diplomats from Russia and a ban on the US embassy from hiring Russian citizens as staff.
Russia’s ambassador to the United States returned to Moscow a month ago after being recalled by the Foreign Ministry for consultations.