UK warships to head for Black Sea in May as Ukraine-Russia tensions escalate: Report

Amidst the threat of a potential war between Ukraine and Russia, fleets of British warships will sail for the black sea in May, Sunday Times reported citing senior naval sources. While Kyiv has still not been granted NATO membership, the deployment is aimed at showing UK’s solidarity to the eastern European country as well as other NATO allies. Earlier in April, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelelnsky dialled Johnson twice urging them to facilitate his state's accession to NATO while also increasing its presence in the conflict-hit region. 

According to the report, a Type 45 destroyer armed with anti-aircraft missiles along with an anti-submarine Type 23 frigate will leave the Royal Navy's carrier task group in the Mediterranean next month. The warships would head through the Bosphorus Strait into the Black Sea. In addition to that, RAF F-35B Lightning stealth jets and Merlin submarine-hunting helicopters will stand ready on the task group's flagship, the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, to support the warships in the Black Sea.

Without revealing any details of the deployment, a ministry spokesman told Sunday Times that the Boris Johnson administration was “working closely” with Ukraine to monitor the situation in the Donbas region. Additionally, he also asserted that both Britain and its allies were in “unwavering support for “Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had also expressed the Western military alliance's "unwavering" support for Ukraine and warned Moscow. Stoltenberg at a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the Russian movements "unjustified, unexplained and deeply concerning". 

Russia-Ukraine escalation 

Kyiv has accused Moscow of massing thousands of military personnel on its northern and eastern borders along with the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow back in 2014. The reports of buildup have emerged amid an escalation of armed clashes between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the east of the nation. The conflict has claimed over 13,000 lives since 2014, as per the United Nations (UN) tally. Since July 2020, an uneasy cease-fire has been in effect. While the longstanding conflict is still unresolved, the latest escalation was triggered after four Ukrainian soldiers died on March 26 and Kyiv blamed the incident on Moscow. 

Image: AP