Black Sea Fleet

Russian military stages drills in Crimea

MOSCOW -- The Russian army has started a military exercise in Crimea, with more than 600 soldiers participating, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti said on Tuesday.

Russia plans to deploy submarines carrying cruise missiles with a range of over 1,500 km in the port of Novorossiysk, the Black Sea Fleet commander has said.

Russia will increase its Black Sea fleet by 2020 with more than 80 new warships and will complete a second naval base for the fleet near the city of Novorossiysk by 2016, its commander said

Kiev says Russia has "4,000 soldiers" at border

KIEV -- The Ukrainian government has announced that Russia amassed about 4,000 troops stationed in Crimea, on the border with Ukraine.

Russia is to enforce its Black Sea Fleet stationed on the Crimean Peninsula, which broke away from Ukraine in mid-March.

Vice Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, Commander of one of the Russian Navy's key sub-units, announced the country had started to develop a "powerful" black fleet.

Russia plans to issue a banknote dedicated to Crimea, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday, the latest expression of national pride over Moscow's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine.
   

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to Parliament that an enactment allowing military intervention on Ukrainian territory be canceled, his press secretary reported.

The request was introduced "with the aim to normalize the situation" in the east of Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying. 

NATO will send two surveillance ships to the Black Sea in the next few days to conduct radio-electronic reconnaissance of the military objects of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The French frigate Surcouf conducts electronic reconnaissance of military facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, claims a Russian military source.

The source, quoted by ITAR-TASS, said the frigate, which entered the Black Sea on May 28,  “is maneuvering in the northern part of the Black Sea, occasionally approaching the Crimean coast by 50 to 60 kilometers”.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is to receive 30 new warships under a naval construction program by 2020, according to Admiral Viktor Chirkov, Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier estimated that more than USD 2.3 B will be put aside for the renovation.