Russia continued to expand its military presence in the Black Sea over the weekend as two more warships and 15 smaller ships headed for the waterway amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.
The two Russian ships, which could carry tanks and armored vehicles, as well as forces for coastal attacks, traveled through Turkey’s Bosphorus on Saturday, Reuters reported.
In the coming days, more naval reinforcements – including Baltic fleet landing ships – are expected to arrive in the Black Sea in support of the thousands of troops and armored vehicles already near Russia’s eastern border with Ukraine.
The Biden administration scrubbed two US warships to the Black Sea last Thursday after the Kremlin warned “stay away for your own good” for the deployment.
The turnaround came shortly before the White House imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2020 presidential election and the SolarWinds hack that infiltrated the computers of hundreds of government agencies and private sector companies.
A senior official said the government did not want the already tense situation in the region to “get out of hand”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the sanctions by expelling 10 US diplomats and threatened to pursue other retaliatory actions as part of the accused showdown between the two superpowers.
Putin also closed access to the Kerch Strait to foreign warships last week until this fall.
The strait connects Russia and Crimea, which Putin illegally annexed in 2014, triggering a series of sanctions from the US and its European allies.
Since then, fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatist forces have killed thousands.