The USS Truxtun destroyer started a one-day military exercise with the Bulgarian and Romanian navies in the Black Sea.
The US military has described the exercise as a "routine" mission
scheduled ahead of the Ukraine crisis, which witnessed the
Ukrainian opposition forcing the democratically elected
president, Victor Yanukovich, to flee the capital Kiev on
February 22, a US Naval official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Truxtun last week participated in drills with Romanian and
Bulgarian ships a few hundred miles from Russian forces of the
Black Sea Fleet.
"There are many reasons for exercises with allies, it allows
us an opportunity to assure our NATO allies that we support
them," Shawn Eklund, a public affairs officer for US Naval
Forces Europe, told Reuters.
The naval maneuvers follow Russia and Crimea signing treaty of
accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol in the Russian
Federation.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister
of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov and Sevastopol mayor, Aleksey Chaly,
signed a historic agreement for Crimea and Sevastopol to join the
Russian Federation
The Crimean Peninsula juts into the north of the Black Sea, which
is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which was founded by Prince
Grigory Potemkin in 1783.