Military expert: NATO warships are becoming regular visitors to the Black Sea
Two NATO warships have entered the port of Odessa, media reports said. In an interview with Sputnik, Professor Vladimir Kozin of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences noted that the presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea has become almost permanent.
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| Photo: Sputnik |
The TCG Barbaros destroyer and the TCG Marti missile boat have arrived in the port of Odessa within the framework of security cooperation between Türkiye and Ukraine, the Odessa online website reported.
"This morning, two NATO warships arrived in the port of Odessa. The destroyer TCG Barbaros and the fast attack missile boat TCG Marti arrived in Odessa within the framework of the bilateral security cooperation program between Türkiye and Ukraine," the report said.
According to the website, the two Turkish warships will stay in the port of Odessa until March 8.
In late February, the US guided-missile destroyer Donald Cook anchored in the commercial port of Odessa. A spokesman for the US Navy's 6th Fleet said the ship was conducting "operations to ensure safety at sea".
In an interview with Sputnik, Vladimir Kozin, professor at the Russian Academy of Military Sciences and leading expert at the Center for Military-Political Studies of MGIMO University, noted that the presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea has become almost permanent.
"NATO warships are becoming regular visitors to the Black Sea, the number of exercises in this part of the ocean has increased significantly. The presence in Odessa of the US destroyer Donald Cook, which has weapons systems, including offensive weapons, and two more NATO warships shows that the stated goals of these warships do not correspond to reality. In this case, there can be no talk of cooperation or increased safety at sea," said Vladimir Kozin.
The real goal, he said, was to practice for attack scenarios.
“The purpose of the warships is to get acquainted with the future combat zone, to introduce the crews to the situation at sea and in coastal areas, to practice “fleet-to-fleet” and “fleet-to-coast” operations, which are attack scenarios. In addition, they began to use the rotational deployment system, so the NATO naval presence in the Black Sea became regular. Of course, all this does not help to stabilize the situation,” said Vladimir Kozin.
On March 1, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill allowing foreign armed forces units to enter Ukrainian territory in 2019 to participate in multinational exercises. The Ukrainian president must approve this document.
Earlier, Ukrainian leader Pyotr Poroshenko asked the Parliament to approve the decision to allow foreign military units into the country's territory in 2019. Specifically, to participate in two Ukrainian-American exercises "Rapid Trident-2019" and "Sea Breeze-2019", the Ukrainian-Romanian exercise "Riverine-2019", the multinational exercise "Maple Arch-2019" and the Ukrainian-British exercise "Warrior Watcher-2019".
