BLOCKDOWN
Vladimir Putin blocks foreign warships from reaching Ukraine flashpoint after Joe Biden’s Black Sea U-turn
VLADIMIR Putin has blocked ALL foreign warships from reaching Ukraine after Joe Biden's Black Sea U-Turn.
The Russian leader has amassed tens of thousands of troops and weaponry on the Ukrainian border in a terrifying escalation of tensions.
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This comes seven years after Russia ruthlessly annexed Crimea in the east of the country using militia groups.
Moscow has now closed part of the Kerch Strait - which separates Crimea in the west from Russia in the east - after US President Biden threatened to send two Navy battleships to the region but then called them off.
The Kremlin had earlier warned US warships to stay well away from the region “for their own good”, calling their potential deployment in the Black Sea a provocation.
White House officials decided not to send the ships to avoid needlessly escalating the situation with Russia, a US defence official told .
Now the Ukrainian foreign ministry has revealed Russia will close part of the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait for foreign warships involved in military exercises from next week until October.
This comes as:
- Putin moves tens of thousands of troops and heavy military equipment to Ukraine border
- Russia sends 15 warships to Ukraine and stages live-fire-drills
- turned back after Russia warned to steer clear of the region.
- Ukraine's defence minister Andrii Taran claims Russia is preparing to store nukes in Crimea
- Joe Biden gives his 'unwavering support' to Ukraine
- Russian defence analyst says Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine will be occupied in a 'victorious and fleeting blitzkrieg'
It comes amid fears Putin may be preparing for another land grab from Ukraine as he masses troops along eastern border with the former Soviet state.
Earlier Russia announced another 15 of its warships will sail into the Black Sea amid rising tensions.
The 15 vessels will sail through a network of canals, rivers and waterways as they make their way from the Caspian Sea via the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, US President Biden spoke of his "unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity".
And during a phone call with Putin, he reportedly proposed a summit meeting to "discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia".
But the Kremlin said it was "premature" to talk about a possible meeting although it said it would "continue dialogue" with the US.
TIMELINE OF TENSION
Russia's aggression in Ukraine has raised fears of all-out war in the region.
March 5 - Ukraine slams an upsurge of violence in east of the country and calls on western allies to intervene.
March 26 - four Ukrainian soldiers are killed 19 miles north of eastern city of Donetsk.
March 30 - Moscow and Kiev accuse each other of causing an escalation in violence.
March 31 - Both Washington and Kiev report Russian troop movements in Crimea and at Russia's border with Ukraine - an area controlled by separatists.
April 1 - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Moscow of massing thousands of soldiers on the border and in Crimea.
April 2 - US President Joe Biden gives his 'unwavering support' to Ukraine.
Russia says the build-up is a three-week snap military drill to test combat readiness in response to threats from NATO.
April 14 - Russia sends 15 warships to Ukraine and stages live-fire-drills
Leaked Ukrainian government report says Russia is set to deploy 30,000 more troops to border after amassing 80,000 soldiers in the region
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Expert Dr Jade McGlynn, director of research at the Henry Jackson Society, told The Sun Online that Putin is threatening to invade Ukraine as he looks to reassert Russia's "superpower" status.
Dr McGlynn insists the build-up of troops and arms in eastern Ukraine is Putin "showing off"; and doubts the Russian strongman would risk a full-scale conflict.
She said: "Putin would rather manipulate and fool around than go into full-on war.
"War is a big risk. This is more about showing off. And showing Biden 'don't think you can come in and try and speak down to Russia and try and put Russia in its place because Russia is a global power.”
General Tod Wolters, head of US forces in Europe, says there is a “low to medium risk” of a Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few weeks.
General Wolters, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, said: "My sense is, with the trend that I see right now, that the likelihood of an occurrence will start to wane."
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND
Russia's aggression towards Ukraine can be traced back to the Soviet era
More than a century ago, in 1917, the Ukrainians first tried to set up their own state - with the aftershock threatening to destabilise the whole Soviet Union.
During the civil war that followed the revolutions in Moscow and Kiev, Ukrainian peasants rejected the imposition of Soviet rule.
Some 15 years later, Stalin tried to quash any further dissent from Ukraine through policies that led to the starvation of five million people across the Soviet Union, including four million Ukrainians.
If Ukraine rejected Soviet ideology and the Soviet system, Stalin feared the downfall of the whole Soviet Union as Ukrainian rebellion could inspire Georgians, Armenians or Tajiks to the same.
Dr Jade McGlynn told the Sun Online: "Russia still has a very imperialistic understanding of itself and there is a famous quote that 'Russia cannot be an empire without Ukraine'.
"With Crimea, I lived in Russia during the annexation in 2014, and everybody supported it. There were street parties for weeks.
"There was public pressure at the time on Putin to annex Donbass and Luhansk like he had Crimea.
"In Russia's view, Ukrainians and Russians are essentially the same people until the 1900s they used to call Ukrainians 'little Russians'.
"Russian history, and particularly the east of Ukraine, has been intertwined.
"The 1990s were a very traumatic time for Russians - they lost their empire, almost overnight.
"Putin has been trying to restore that sense of being a great power."
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Putin has already gathered 80,000 troops in the region with another 30,000 soldiers set to be deployed.
Meanwhile Russian tanks painted with “invasion stripes" are gathering on Ukraine’s border.
A local in the Russian Astrakhan region, 350 miles from the border, filmed the armoured vehicles with white crosses painted on them.
Military experts have warned that similar white markings were used by the Soviet Army during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. The stripes help identify vehicles to friendly forces.
Russia's aggression towards Ukraine can be traced back to the Soviet era.
More than a century ago, in 1917, Ukrainians first tried to set up their own state - with the aftershock threatening to destabilise the whole Soviet Union.
During the civil war that followed, Ukrainian peasants rejected the imposition of Soviet rule.
But 15 years later, Stalin tried to quash any further dissent from Ukraine through policies that led to the starvation of five million people across the Soviet Union, including four million Ukrainians.
Joe Biden announced a string of sweeping sanctions against Russia yesterday, punishing Moscow for its meddling in the 2020 election, hacking of government networks and "abuses in Crimea".
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The US President did however call for unity, insisting that Washington is willing to work with Moscow.
He said: "Now is the time to deescalate through thoughtful dialogue.
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"The United State is ready to move through that process.
"Where there's an interest for the United States to work with Russia, we should and we will."
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