U.S. Moves to Defy Russia Through Navy Operation
The planned military exercise risks escalating tensions in an already combative region.
By Paul D. Shinkman, Senior National Security Writer Dec. 5, 2018, at 5:25 p.m.
The Pentagon has asked the State Department to begin the process of requesting permission from Turkey to sail vessels into the Black Sea, which borders both Ukraine and Russia and serves as the sole maritime access to the Sea of Azov, a flashpoint for a series of confrontations between Moscow and Kiev in recent weeks.
The maneuver, known in military parlance as a "freedom of navigation" exercise, would risk drastically escalating the possibility of conflict between the Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine, which Washington has supported militarily since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and began supporting separatist forces in the country's east.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-12-05/us-navy-prepares-to-challenge-russia-in-black-sea-report
