The Biden administration is reportedly poised to send Navy ships into the Black Sea in a show of force supporting Ukraine amid a buildup of Russian troops along that country’s border and Moscow’s further militarization of the Crimean Peninsula.
In recent weeks, skirmishes in the restive Donestk region of eastern Ukraine led to the death of four Ukrainian soldiers at the hands of Russian-backed separatists. The violence is the first since a July 2020 peace agreement was signed in Minsk. Following the unrest, Russia began massing troops along the border and into Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014. Claiming it is conducting military exercises, the United States may just do the same.
“We have been routinely operating inside the Black Sea,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.
Kirby said he could not provide any operational specifics in the region, but a media report indicates a plan to send warships into the Black Sea is underway.
UKRAINE PLEADS FOR RAPID NATO ENTRY WITH RUSSIA ON ITS DOORSTEP
U.S. European Command and the Office of the Secretary of Defense declined to comment to the Washington Examiner about the reports.
The U.S. Navy spends a total of 100 days a year in the Black Sea to conduct freedom of navigation movements and military exercises, including bilateral and multilateral exercises. Eucom recently said the U.S. Navy exercises up to nine times a year in the crowded space where shorelines are shared by three NATO partners, Ukraine, and Russia.
“We’re trying to follow our EUCOM commander’s lead and DOD focus on shifting our focus down to the Balkans, Black Sea region right now, a strategically important area where we’ve always had a presence, but we want to increase that,” a U.S. European Command planner recently told the Washington Examiner.
An official from U.S. Naval Forces Europe recently told the Washington Examiner that Ukraine represents a “huge partner” in the Black Sea region. The country recently received a donation of $125 million in naval assets and has benefited from $2 billion in U.S. defense investments since 2014.
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Russian ships and submarines have increasingly frequented the Black Sea since Russia took Crimea. Russian fighter jets often buzz, or fly low, over U.S. ships in a sign of aggression.
If the deployment takes place, it would be consistent with recent U.S. officials’ comments in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity at a moment when the country is pleading to enter NATO and benefit from its protection.
