NATO deploys German and 3 other warships in Ukraine

Kiev: While the US has made demands to Russia over the ‘Crimea‘ conflict and the Ukraine Government has imposed restrictions on Russian banks, NATO has deployed 4 warships in Ukraine. These warships were from Germany, Poland, Spain and Turkey. In the last month, NATO had decided upon to increase its naval strength against Russia. The deployment of new warships is considered to be a part of this strategy.

The Ukrainian naval force had informed regarding the arrival of NATO warships. The information that these warships were a part of NATO’s ‘Permanent Naval Anti-Mine Group’ and were going to be deployed at Port Odessa, was published by the Ukrainian Navy via a ‘Facebook Post’. The warships that arrived at Ukraine included the German ‘FGS ROTTWEIL’, Polish ‘ORP KX CZERNICKI’, Spanish ‘ESPS DUERO’ and Turkish ‘TCG ALANYA’.

The warships that had arrived at Ukraine as part of NATO’s campaign, would remain deployed there until the 20th of April. It has been claimed that during its stay, training for the Ukrainian navy and a visit to the naval command at Ukraine are on its agenda. This deployment of warships by NATO is considered to be a part of its strategy against Russia.

In a meeting held at Brussels last month, the NATO member nations agreed on increasing their naval strength in the ‘Black Sea‘ region. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that as a part of the decision, the deployment of warships of the NATO member nations in the ‘Black Sea’, naval training and exercises was to be focused on. Whilst this decision was being made, the Romanian-Bulgarian naval exercises were in progress.

In the war exercise named ‘Exercise Sea Shield’ held near Romania, 15 warships, fighter planes, missile launchers and around 2,800 soldiers from the US along with six other nations had participated. This also included the advanced US destroyer ‘USS Porter’. Also, 5 warships had participated in the war exercise called ‘PASSEX 2017’ that was held near the Bulgarian Port Varna. Additionally, along with 2 Bulgarian warships, one destroyer each from Spain, Canada and Romania had also participated.

The arrival of warships in Ukraine in the month of March, following the aforementioned event, suggested that NATO had targeted its focus at the sea region. In the past two years, Russia has increased its naval activities and the number of incidences that have been noted of the Russian warships and submarines wandering close to the European nations have also increased. A few weeks ago, a European think tank in its warning had claimed that the Russian Navy could curb the help and trade that Europe gets through the waters.