Four NATO Warships 'Heading for Black Sea'

Four vessels of the Alliance are approaching the Black Sea, military-diplomatic sources say.

Reports cited by Russian agency ITAR-TASS suggest the warships are US Destroyer USS Ross, French aviso Commandant Birot (F 796), Canadian frigate HMCS Toronto, Spanish air-defense Almirante Juan de Borbon (F-102).

Two of them, Ross and Commandant Birot, are due to arrive on September 3, while the others are expected September 6.

French surveillance ship Dupuy de Lome is meanwhile due to leave on September 5, the sources believe.

The move comes after NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated earlier this week the military bloc's plans to bolster defense in Eastern Europe with regard to the Ukraine crisis, which NATO believes Russia is still fomenting.

Rasmussen then explained he considered the threats in the region to have become "more urgent and tangible".