Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said on Rossiya TV’s “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” broadcast on Sunday that recent U.S. and NATO guided missile ships that entered the Black Sea were attempting to test the strength of Russia’s Black Sea coast and southern border protection.
“Well, you know when we see this: when a warship belonging to a non-regional power enters the Black Sea and we understand that it carries long-range precision weapons, when we see that these weapons are aboard it and it is not on a tourist tour, we, naturally, keep a close eye on it and track it and we understand that any provocations are possible at any time as was the case recently with a British destroyer and, of course, we must prevent such things. To speak more exactly, this is, of course, almost a constant attempt to test us to see how much we are prepared and how effectively we have built our system along the Black Sea coast and generally in the south of our country.”
