Russia: Black Sea turns to a battlefield
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko says that the Black Sea region is turning into an arena for military confrontation, after the British Defender entered Russian territorial waters.
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Grushko: We cannot help but be concerned about NATO strengthening its military presence along our borders.
Today, Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko confirmed that the Black Sea region is turning into an arena for military confrontation.
According to Grushko, Western countries choose "a spiral of confrontation" instead of cooperation with Russia. "This situation is explosive, even if all parties remain prudent. Unintentional incidents, which can result in a real conflict, are not ruled out," he stressed.
"We cannot but be concerned that NATO is consistently building up its military presence along our borders, increasing the volume of air patrols, the number of drills, with its warships entering the Black, Baltic, and even the Barents Sea," Grushko added.
"Let me also note that, as a result of these activities, regions that are calm militarily are turning into an arena of absolutely unnecessary military confrontation. Such actions call into question the relevance of the document itself, the fundamental Russia-NATO act. We proceed from the assumption that it must be complied with," he concluded.
As for the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that the British ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Brunnert, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, to inform her of the British destroyer in the Black Sea, which Moscow considers a provocative act.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense warned of violating the country's maritime borders under the pretext of free navigation, and announced that the Black Sea Fleet forces and the Russian border guards fired warning shots, after the British destroyer "Defender" breached the country's borders, off the coast of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
The British Ministry of Defense responded, accusing its Russian counterpart of "announcing inaccurate details of an incident in the Black Sea", saying that its destroyer was passing peacefully through the territorial waters of Ukraine in accordance with international law, and no warning shots were fired from the Russian side. It clarified that Russia was conducting "shooting exercises" in the Black Sea.
