London, Feb 2: A UK warship has been tracking two Russian naval vessels passing through the English Channel amid increasing tensions in Russia-West relations over Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. On Monday, the French army said that it had monitored Russia’s Soobrazitelniy and Stoykiy corvettes as they left the port of the exclaved Russian city of Kaliningrad to conduct combat exercises.
Later, the French military tweeted that it had handed over the tracking of the Russian ships to UK frigate HMS Argyll and US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. “As part of a unified response with our allies, the Royal Navy monitor the presence of Russian naval ships as they transit through the English Channel,” a spokesperson for the UK defense ministry said, as quoted by British newspaper Mirror. According to the spokesperson, monitoring ships is a “normal response.”
In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of massing troops near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for invasion. Russia said that it has no intention of invading Ukraine, while stressing that it has the right to move its forces within its own territory. Russia has also expressed concerns over NATO’s military activity near its borders and the ongoing military support of Ukraine, including an increase in the number of Western instructors in the breakaway Donbas region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow does not exclude that the “hysteria” around Ukraine fueled by the West is aimed at covering Kiev’s plans to sabotage the Minsk Agreements on Donbas. UNI
