Russia continued to increase its military presence in the Black Sea over the weekend as two more warships and 15 smaller ships moved toward the waterway amid tensions between Washington and Moscow.
The two Russian ships, capable of carrying tanks and armored vehicles, as well as assault troops on the coast, traveled across the Bosphorus Strait to Turkey on Saturday, Reuters reported.
More naval reinforcements, including landing ships from the Baltic fleet, are expected to arrive in the Black Sea in the coming days to support the thousands of troops and armored vehicles that are already near Russia’s eastern border with Ukraine.
The Biden administration scrambled last Thursday to send two U.S. warships to the Black Sea after the Kremlin warned it to “stay away for its own good” in deployment.
The change of direction came shortly before the White House crushed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2020 presidential election and for hacking SolarWinds that infiltrated the computers of hundreds of government agencies and private sector companies.
A senior government official said the administration did not want the already tense situation in the region to “get out of control”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to sanctions by expelling ten U.S. diplomats and threatened to continue other retaliatory measures as part of the charged confrontation between the two superpowers.
Putin also cut off access to the Kerch Strait last week on foreign warships until this fall.
The strait unites Russia and Crimea, which Putin illegally annexed in 2014, leading to a round of sanctions by the US and its European allies.
Since then, fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatist troops has killed thousands.