WASHINGTON, 21 November 2021, (TON): A ship carrying two refitted former US Coast Guard patrol boats designed to beef up the Ukrainian Navy transited the Dardanelles strait days after Ukraine said it feared Russia might be preparing an attack on it.

The ship carrying the two Island-class patrol boats departed Baltimore for the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Nov. 8. Ukrainian sailors have already undergone extensive training on the vessels in the United States. Ukraine got two similar vessels in 2019.

The US embassy in Kyiv said “the two new boats are part of a security package to Ukraine worth over $2.5 billion since 2014, the year when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and Russian-backed separatists seized a swath of eastern Ukraine.”

The United States, Ukraine and NATO have accused Russia of threatening behaviour towards Kyiv in recent weeks alleging that it has built up its forces in proximity to Ukraine in an unusual way.

Russia said “it has the right to move its troops anywhere it wants on its own territory and is not planning to attack anyone.”

The Kremlin said that NATO would cross a Russian red line if it expanded its military infrastructure in Ukraine, and Moscow has since accused Ukraine and NATO of destabilising behaviour, including in the Black Sea.