Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the Black Sea will never be a “NATO sea”, after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the alliance to play a greater security role in the region.
Speaking via video link at a conference on security in the Black Sea in Bucharest, Kuleba said it was time for the Black Sea to belong to NATO.
Russia and Ukraine overlook the Black Sea, as well as Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, members of the military alliance.
Last February, the Ukrainian army announced that Russia had doubled the number of its warships operating in the Black Sea.
The Russian Navy frequently fires missiles from its Black Sea fleet, as part of Moscow’s effort to target Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and power generation facilities.
And US officials said, last March, that Washington is looking for alternatives to its drones in the airspace of the Black Sea, after the interception incident carried out by the Russian Air Force.
CNN quoted officials at the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) as saying that the ministry is evaluating the paths of US drones in the airspace of the Black Sea, and is studying alternative ways to avoid Russian fighters in Crimea and avoid escalation with Russia.
