Russian Navy

MOSCOW ? Cyprus on Wednesday signed a deal with Russia allowing its navy ships to make regular port calls on the island.

The deal with European Union member Cyprus, which also hosts British military bases, comes amid Russia-West tensions over Ukraine, the worst since the Cold War times.

Warships from Russia's Northern Fleet entered the English Channel to hold drills, reports RIA Novosti, quoting the Russian Navy press office.

According to the report, a squadron of battleships, led by the Severomorsk anti-submarine ship crossed the narrowest part of the Channel and entered the Seine Bay.

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

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.

Two Mistral assault ships are to be sold to Russia, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced.

The decision comes amid tensions between Moscow and the West over the Ukraine crisis.

Fabius wrote on Twitter that the contracts were agreed in 2011 and were to be executed as they would create many jobs in his country, as the BBC reported.

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.

All US warships that were previously deployed to the Black Sea have now left its basin, the Russian Navy's General Staff has announced.

The destroyer USS Taylor was reported by Interfax agency to be in the Mediterranean on Monday after its 21-day-long stay in the Black Sea allowed by the Montreux Convention setting a three-week time limit for foreign vessels.

Russia displayed its full military might during the annual Victory Day parade at the Red Square in Moscow.

The country marked the 69th anniversary of the defeat over Nazi Germany in WW II.

Crimean forces occupy naval base in Sevastopol

SEVASTOPOL -- Crimean units for self-defense have occupied a Ukrainian naval base in Sevastopol on the Black Sea, reported the AP.