US condemns Russian plan to block the Black Sea as ‘yet another unprovoked escalation’

Washington has condemned the ‘unprovoked escalation’ of Russian plans to block the Black Sea, which could prevent access to Ukrainian ports. 

Russian state media have reported that Moscow intends to close parts of the Black Sea to foreign military and official ships for six months.

It could prevent access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov, which is connected to the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait, on the eastern tip of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

‘This represents yet another unprovoked escalation in Moscow’s ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine,’ State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Monday.

‘This development is particularly troubling amid credible reports of Russian troop buildup in occupied Crimea and around Ukraine’s borders, now at levels not seen since Russia’s invasion in 2014,’ he added.

The naval blockade comes as Vladimir Putin has deployed more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and in the Crimea where a new military camp was revealed by satellite imagery on Monday.

Military sources in Kiev last night revealed they were now fearing a Russian assault on water facilities which provide running water to people living in the south. 

Four Russian Ropucha class ships have gathered in the Black Sea, joining more than 15 other warships, in preparation for an attack, The Mirror reported. 

‘Ukrainian military take these ships very seriously,’ an Ukrainian officer told the paper.

‘We estimate one of the Russian scenarios could be an amphibious and air assault from occupied Crimea to seize water supply facilities in south Ukraine to provide water to Crimea.’

The newspaper reported sources as saying the ‘most likely’ attack plan would be a maritime and land assault on southern Ukraine from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Poor weather may have delayed any potential land attack by several weeks. 

Following Russia’s invasion, Ukraine cut off much of the water supply to Crimea, creating a dire shortage.   

On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed there are more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border and in Crimea following talks involving Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

‘It is the highest Russian military deployment at Ukrainian borders ever,’ he said, adding: ‘The risk of further escalation, it’s evident.’

Borrell revealed new satellite images which revealed a fresh deployment of troops next to Kachyk Lake on the south coast of Crimea.

It appeared over the course of a month to house Russian soldiers and vehicles that Putin has been ferrying to the region on the back of trains and trucks.

Images taken by PlanetLabs satellites on April 13 show at least 1,000 vehicles on site, lined up in fenced-off areas opposite infantry tents. Only a fraction of that force was visible in another image taken a month earlier on March 15.

A secondary sub-camp is also visible around a mile to the west of the main camp, on the shores of Kachyk Lake. That camp primarily consists of vehicles in fenced-off pens, with a handful of infantry tents visible.

While Ukraine has previously warned that as many as 40,000 new Russian troops have been stationed in Crimea, in addition to another 40,000 on the mainland, it is the first time that a camp housing the force has been pictured. 

Tensions have spiralled over the build-up of Russian troops around its southwestern neighbour as an intensification of clashes with Moscow-backed separatists has fuelled fears of a return to widespread fighting in Ukraine. 

Moscow’s military says it is conducting exercises along its frontier in response to moves by Western military alliance NATO that ‘threaten Russia’.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said last week that ‘two armies and three airborne units were successfully deployed’ to the Russia’s western border and that the drills would be over ‘within two weeks’.

Ukraine is pushing the West for more practical support as it looks to deter any further aggression from Moscow.

Kiev’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pressed the EU to prepare ‘a new set of sectoral sanctions’ against Russia in talks with his counterparts from the 27-nation bloc on Monday.

But Borrell said that there were currently no further sanctions being proposed or under consideration.  

Military analyst Bruce Jones told The Mirror it was ‘extremely rare’ for amphibious assault ships like the Ropuchas – which can offload tanks and thousands of troops – to join other military craft.

‘It is unprecedented for such a large number of landing ships from so many different Russian fleets to assemble.

‘Vessels such as these were deployed during the 2008 invasion of Georgia to great effect and were used to land special forces and commandos.

‘This happened on Georgian beaches and it happened very quickly.’

Jones told the paper that, if not intended for an offensive, gathering such ships together is an ‘extremely costly’ exercise’.  

Ukraine is pushing the West for more practical support as it looks to deter any further aggression from Moscow.

Kiev’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pressed the EU to prepare ‘a new set of sectoral sanctions’ against Russia in talks with his counterparts from the 27-nation bloc on Monday.

But Borrell said that there were currently no further sanctions being proposed or under consideration.  

Observers have also suggested the unannounced build-up could be designed as a test for Joe Biden, as Putin attempts to get the measure of his new counterpart.

Biden has called for the Russian president to ‘de-escalate’ tensions and proposed a summit which could take place in Finland in the coming months.

The move has been hailed as a win by Moscow, after Biden previously took a hard line against Putin – calling him ‘a killer’ and refusing to meet with him on the basis that he was too busy.

As well as seeking support from the US, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has turned to his European allies, last week meeting with France’s President Emanuel Macron in Paris and speaking with German Chancellor Angela Merkel via videolink.

The pair pledged their backing for Ukraine, but offered little in the way of practical support.

Meanwhile, the UK has offered to send two warships to the Black Sea as a warning to Putin, according to leaked documents, after the US cancelled the deployment of two of its own vessels to the region.