Putin calls US maneuvers in the Black Sea “provocation”

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, described this Monday as “provocation” the military maneuvers carried out by the United States and NATO in the Black Sea, during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, the Kremlin reported.

During his conversation with Macron, Putin he referred to the “provocative nature of maneuvers large-scale carried out by USA and some of his allies in the Mar Negro, which reinforce tensions between Russia and NATO, ”the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Russian president seemed to refer to the participation of several US military vessels in maneuvers at Mar Negro that Moscow pointed out last week that it was “supervising” and that Putin described as “serious challenge.”

His statements come in a context of growing tension over the conflict in Ukraine, a coastal country of the Mar Negro.

The situation in this region has been very tense since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014. For more than seven years, Ukraine has been in conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east of its territory.

USA and the European Union have expressed concern about the recent deployment of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.

In a phone conversation with Putin on Monday, Macron expressed his “willingness to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” according to the French presidency.

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