For a over a week, the United States and Russia have been moving military forces to Ukraine and the Black Sea, while simultaneously launching large military maneuvres in Greece [1].
The Pentagon announced that two of its destroyers, the USS Roosevelt and the USS Donald Cook, were dispatched to the Black Sea as part of the Defender-Europe 21 exercises. Meanwhile five C-130J Hercules transport planes were announced to have arrived in Kiev from Stuttgart. For its part, Moscow also denounced the creation of a NATO marksmanship training center near Mariupol.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he failed to see what Washington was trying to achieve in the region.
The Russian military responded to the threat by relocating a dozen warships from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
In addition, Turkey – a member of NATO – is moving forward with its project for a canal doubling the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. which would escape the Montreux Convention governing the crossing of the straits by warships.
[1] “Ukraine, bombe US en Europe”, par Manlio Dinucci, Traduction Marie-Ange Patrizio, Il Manifesto (Italie), Réseau Voltaire, 13 avril 2021.