Moscow – Tension between Russia and the West has further increased this week, with Russia increasing military exercises in the Black Sea and thousands of troops gathered on the border with Ukraine. In a clear sign of cooling relations, the ambassador of the United States in Moscow confirmed he was leaving the land for “consultations” back in the US.
More than 20 Russian ships participated in the latest exercises, along with Su-25SM3 attack aircraft, as part of a check of the fleet’s troops, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet said Tuesday.
Russia also announced it would close airspace over parts of Crimea and the Black Sea and said the areas “had been declared temporarily dangerous for airplane flights,” Russian news agency Interfax reported Tuesday, citing an official message to pilots.
Troops at the Ukrainian border
More than 100,000 Russian troops have gathered on the Ukrainian border and in Crimea, Josep Borrell, European Union chief of foreign affairs, said after a briefing by Ukraine’s foreign minister.
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Crimea is the peninsula that was unilaterally annexed from Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin in 2014. His government now considers it Russian territory, and although the US and Europe have refused to recognize the takeover, the Russian military has firm control over the opening up of the country. in the Black Sea.
“It is the highest military deployment of the Russian army ever on the Ukrainian borders,” said Borrell. He initially said that Russia had gathered more than 150,000 troops in the region, but his comments were later corrected without elaboration.
The Maxar satellite imaging company delivered nearly a dozen images on Tuesday that reportedly showed increased movements and an influx of Russian military hardware in numerous locations in Crimea, Ukraine and near the common border in recent weeks.
Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
The build-up has come amid a spike in hostilities in Eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been engaged in a simmering war with Ukraine’s US-European-backed military since 2014. possible flare-up in the so-called frozen conflict.
While US military officials have not yet seen anything to suggest that Russia is gearing up for an upcoming cross-border invasion of Ukraine, the United States, the UK and the European states have criticized Moscow for its military build-up.
The Kremlin has rejected all calls for the withdrawal of troops and equipment, saying that Russian troops are free to move across Russian territory as they see fit, and to respond to any Moscow ‘provocative’ movements. calls of the NATO alliance near its borders.
Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow is not responsible for the rising tension. He called on other countries to refrain from “massive anti-Russian psychosis”.
Warships in the Black Sea
Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shut down navigation in parts of the Black Sea for foreign military and other official ships from mid-April to the end of October. The move was condemned by the West.
SERGEY PIVOVAROV / REUTERS
US State Department spokesman Ned Price called it “yet another unprovoked escalation in Moscow’s ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine,” and “particularly troubling amid credible reports of Russian troops in occupied Crimea and around the borders of Ukraine ”.
Two British warships were scheduled to depart for the Black Sea in May, the Sunday Times newspaper reported Tuesday, citing senior sources for the British navy. The stakes are intended to show solidarity with Ukraine and Britain’s NATO allies, the newspaper reported.
According to the report, a Type 45 destroyer armed with anti-aircraft missiles and an anti-submarine Type 23 frigate will break away from the Royal Navy’s carrier task force in the Mediterranean and sail through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets and Merlin submarine-hunting helicopters are waiting on the task force’s flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the paper said.
The Turkish government announced last week that the US planned to deploy two warships in the Black Sea, but later said the Pentagon had canceled the deployment. US officials have never confirmed or denied that the deployment had been ordered, but a Pentagon spokesman noted that US ships have previously operated in the international waters of the Black Sea.
US ambassador leaves
US Ambassador John Sullivan said he would travel back to Washington this week for consultations after Russia’s State Department suggested he do so amid a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
“I think it is important for me to speak directly to my new colleagues in the Biden administration in Washington about the current state of bilateral relations between the United States and Russia,” he said in comments from the embassy in Moscow.
Sullivan, a Trump-appointed person, said he intended to return to Moscow in the coming weeks, ahead of a meeting 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 nationals as staff.
The Russian ambassador to the US has been back in Moscow for a month after being recalled by the State Department for consultations.