Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin took advantage of the Biden administration’s decision to abandon plans to send two destroyers to the Black Sea by closing off the Kerch Strait, connecting Crimea to Russia, to foreign warships until next fall. The action comes as Russia warned the US on Tuesday to stay away from the area “for their own good” after the Biden administration said it was going to send two destroyers – the USS Roosevelt and the USS Donald Cook – to the Black Sea in response to Moscow’s increasing its military presence near Ukraine. Putin will close the Kerch Strait...

Russia has reportedly announced it will close a crucial strait in the Black Sea to foreign warships, including the Royal Navy, for the next six months. -snip- Now sources in Ukraine report that the Russian Federation has announced it will close the Kerch Strait, from next week until October 2021, "for warships and state ships of other countries under the pretext of military exercises". -snip- The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east.