Blinken: Washington has "real concerns" over Russia’s military moves on Ukraine

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Saturday his country’s "real concerns" about Russia's actions and statements on Ukraine.

"We have real concerns about Russia's unusual military activity on the border with Ukraine. We have real concerns about some of the rhetoric we have been seeing and hearing from Russia as well as in social media," Blinken said.

He added that US allies ‘widely share’ these concerns but declined to say whether US intelligence believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was aiming to 'seize land' from Ukraine.

He also maintained that the US does not know what President Putin's intentions are, “but we do know what's happened in the past. We know the playbook of trying to cite some illusory provocation from Ukraine or any other country and using that as an excuse for what Russia plans to do all along," he said.

Blinken was referring here to the crisis that erupted in 2014 when Russia retrieved the Crimea peninsula following the toppling of the Ukrainian government that had resisted proximity to the West.

Last Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin reiterated America's 'unwavering support' for Ukraine’s ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity' and asserted that the US had made its concerns vocal about what he called Russia's "destabilizing activities".

Earlier, the Russian President accused the West of "escalating" the conflict with Kiev by conducting maneuvers in the Black Sea and sending bombers to fly near the Russian border, stressing that Kiev continues to pursue its harmful policy aimed at undermining the Minsk agreements.

Ukrainian sailors undergo extensive training in the United States

A ship carrying two US Coast Guard patrol boats re-designed to reinforce the Ukrainian Navy crossed the Dardanelles strait on Saturday days after Ukraine said it “feared Russia might be preparing an attack on it.”

The ship departed Baltimore for the Ukrainian Odessa Port on Nov. 8.

It is worth noting that Ukrainian sailors have already undergone extensive training on these vessels in the United States, knowing that Ukraine had received two similar vessels in 2019.

“The two new boats are part of a security package to Ukraine worth over $2.5 billion since 2014,” the US Embassy in Kyiv said.

It should be noted that the United States had conducted Sea Breeze military exercise, the largest naval exercise in the Black Sea since 1997, in which the US, Ukraine, and 32 other countries took part. Moreover, about 5,000 soldiers, 18 special forces teams, 30 ships, and 40 aircraft participated in the drills.