German warship to enter Black Sea for NATO mission
The Werra, a replenishment ship belonging to the German Navy, will travel to the Black Sea in February as part of a permanent NATO anti-mine group. The naval vessel will visit two Bulgarian ports, Burgas and Varna, Deutsche Welle reports citing a spokesperson for Germany’s Defense Ministry.
According to the source, the transfer has been planned for a long time. “There is no plan to deploy other German naval vessels in the Black Sea,” the spokesperson noted.
After Russian special forces captured three Ukrainian military vessels on 25 November 2018 in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait, NATO has condemned Russia’s militarization of the occupied Crimean peninsula, and said that it will closely monitor the development of the situation in the Black Sea. “NATO fully supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including its right to navigation in its territorial waters,” NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu wrote on Twitter on 25 November.
On 6 December 2018, the US Navy’s landing ship USS Fort McHenry passed through the Dardanelles into the Black Sea. On 18 December, the British Navy’s survey ship HMS Echo visited the Port of Odessa. On 9 January 2019, Ukrainian Ambassador to NATO Vadym Prystaiko announced that a group of NATO ships led by the Netherlands were preparing to enter the Black Sea.
The 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits stipulates that the military vessels of countries which do not border on the Black Sea may only remain in its waters for a maximum of 21 days.