But that presence waned, and notwithstanding Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s 2017 pledge to send more alliance ships to the region, it remains insufficient. Soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and several other NATO members stepped up their presence in the Black Sea.
One-fifth of Georgia’s internationally recognized territory is under Russian occupation, including a sizeable amount of Georgia’s Black Sea coastline.
Ukrainian solders die fighting for their country every week. Another two - alliance partners and aspiring members Ukraine and Georgia - have suffered the direct impact of Russian aggression. Three of the six Black Sea countries - Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania - are in NATO. Today, the sea’s floor is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines and fiber optic cables. The Black Sea has long been a geopolitically and economically important crossroads between Europe, Asia, and the Caucasus. The annexation halved Ukraine’s coastline and, along with the subsequent deployment of anti-ship and anti-air missiles, advanced Moscow’s big geostrategic goal of turning the Black Sea into a Russian-controlled lake.
It’s been six years since Russia annexed Crimea, the first time since 1945 that European borders were changed through military force.
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