A US warship crossed the Turkish Straits on Friday to the Black Sea amid tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Turkish state agency Anadolu reported.
The destroyer USS Laboon crossed the Dardanelles Strait and then the Bosphorus Strait towards the Black Sea, Anadolu said.
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The crossing of the Bosphorus, during which the US warship was accompanied by a team of Turkish coast guards, lasted nearly two hours, the agency said, which released photos and video of the destroyer during the trip. passage. The United States had given up in mid-April to deploy two warships in the Black Sea via the Turkish straits, in full tension between Ukraine and Russia, had then affirmed officials and Turkish media. The Montreux Convention of 1936, which governs traffic in the Turkish straits, obliges the countries not bordering the Black Sea to announce 15 days in advance the passage of their ships.
The announcement of the deployment that was finally canceled in April came amid rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine and the decision to send warships was greeted as a sign of Washington's support for Kiev. The cancellation of this maneuver announced by the Turks came the day after a telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Poutin. During this interview, Joe Biden had notably proposed to Vladimir. Putin to meet in a third country and asked the Russian president to
"lower tensions"
in Ukraine, according to the White House.
The two leaders are due to meet in Geneva on Wednesday. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on Monday that Joe Biden had invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House this summer.
