U.S. cancels warships deployment to Black Sea -Turkish diplomatic sources

The United States has cancelled the deployment of two warships to the Black Sea, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, amid concerns over a Russian military build-up on Ukraine's borders.

The United States has cancelled the deployment of two warships to the Black Sea, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, amid concerns over a Russian military build-up on Ukraine's borders. Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the build-up near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Last week, Turkey said Washington would send two warships to the Black Sea, in a decision Russia called an unfriendly provocation.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara had notified Turkey's foreign ministry of the decision, the sources said, but did not provide a reason for the decision. U.S. officials were not immediately available for comment.

Russia, which warned Washington to stay far away from Crimea and its Black Sea coast, says the build-up is a three-week snap military drill to test combat readiness in response to what it calls threatening behaviour from NATO. It has said the exercise is due to wrap up within two weeks. Ahead of the planned arrival of the U.S. warships, Russia's navy on Wednesday began a drill in the Black Sea that rehearsed firing at surface and air targets. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Moscow on Tuesday to end its troop build-up.

At the weekend, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for the "worrying" developments in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region to come to an end, after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart in Istanbul, and offered Turkey's help in the matter.