Putin says US Black Sea maneuvers are ‘provocative’ – 11/15/2021

Moscow, 15 November 2021 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday (15) described the US and NATO military maneuvers in the Black Sea as “provocative” during a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron. , Reported the Kremlin.

During the talks, Putin noted the “provocative nature of the large-scale maneuvers carried out by the United States and some of its allies in the Black Sea to escalate tensions between Russia and NATO,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Russian president appeared to be referring to the involvement of several US warships in the Black Sea, which Moscow called “surveillance” last week and what Putin called a “serious challenge.”

His remarks come amid rising tensions in the Black Sea nation of Ukraine.

The situation in the region has become more complex since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula from Crimea in 2014. For more than seven years, Ukraine has been in conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east of its territory.

The United States and the European Union have expressed concern over the recent concentration of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.

In his telephone conversation with Putin on Monday, Macron expressed his desire to “preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to the French president.

oc-gkg / meb / llu / ic