The Russian navy’s Ropucha-class Russian cruise ship Kondopoga sails across the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, Istanbul, Turkey, April 17, 2021. REUTERS / Yoruk Isik
Two Russian warships sailed through the Bosphorus on Saturday en route to the Black Sea and 15 smaller vessels completed a transfer to the sea while Moscow increased its naval resistance in a time of strained relations with the West and Ukraine.
The reinforcements coincide with a large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, something Moscow calls a temporary defense exercise, following an increase in fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
Russia’s relations with Washington, which canceled the deployment of two of its own warships to the Black Sea last week following heavy Russian protests, are at a low point after the Cold War.
Moscow on Friday suspended ten U.S. diplomats in retaliation for expelling the same number of Russian diplomats from the United States for alleged malicious activity.
Russia also temporarily restricted the movement of foreign warships “and other state ships” near Crimea, which annexed it from Ukraine in 2014, a move condemned by both Kiev and Washington.
Two Russian Ropucha-class Russian ships from the Northern Fleet of Russia, which can transport tanks and deliver weapons and troops during coastal attacks, pulled through the Bosphorus on Saturday, a Reuters reporter saw in Istanbul.
More Russian naval reinforcements in the form of two more landing ships, this time from the Russian Baltic navy, are expected to transport the Bosphorus immediately.
The RIA news agency also reported on Saturday that 15 smaller vessels of the Russian Caspian Flotilla had completed their transfer to the Black Sea as part of an exercise.
In a further sign of heightened tensions in the region, a ship carrying logistics trucks and equipment for NATO forces in Romania through the Bosphorus on Friday night, the same Reuters reporter saw.
The Russian FSB security service briefly detained a Ukrainian diplomat in St. Petersburg, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday. L1N2MA04O
The Interfax news agency quoted the FSB earlier as saying Oleksandr Sosoniuk had been arrested during a meeting with a Russian citizen trying to obtain classified information from Russian law enforcement databases.
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