Washington - The U.S. military may send a warship to the Black Sea and take other steps to reassure anxious allies in Eastern Europe after Russia's intervention in Ukraine, a defense official said on Tuesday.
“Some of the proposals that are being considered would be potentially
putting another U.S. warship in the Black Sea,” a senior defense
official told reporters traveling with Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel.
Earlier, an American destroyer was deployed to the Black Sea earlier in the crisis over Ukraine but departed last month.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that
commanders also were looking at expanding a scheduled exercise this
summer involving troops from the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry division.
Hagel told reporters aboard his plane that while diplomacy remained
Washington’s focus to defuse the crisis, the United States and its NATO
partners were looking at more measures designed to reassure alliance
members on Russia’s border.
He said: “We’ve asked him [NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe Philip Breedlove] to look at the full range of measures.”
“We continue to look at different possibilities and options,” Hagel added.
