Six Russian amphibious landing ships headed for Black Sea

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Six Russian Navy amphibious warfare ships are headed for the Black Sea from the Mediterranean for drills, Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Three Robucha-class tank landing ships -- RFS Minsk, RFS Korolev and RFS Kaliningrad -- entered the Black Sea on Tuesday, according to photos from ship spotter Yoruk Isik, shared with USNI News.

Isik also recorded the ships entering the Dardanelles Strait on Tuesday morning.

Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed the presence of the ships and said they will be joined by three more ships on Wednesday, state-run TASS news agency reported.

"Currently, the crews of the large amphibious assault ships Korolev, Minsk and Kaliningrad are in the Dardanelles Strait. The amphibious assault ships Pytor Morgunov, Gregory Pobedonosets and Olenegorsky Gornyak will pass through the Black Sea straits during the next day," the ministry said.

The defense ministry said the Kremlin has deployed 140 ships throughout the globe as part of a linked series of exercises, which TASS said will cover the seas adjacent to Russian territory and also operationally important areas of the world's oceans.

All six of the ships left the Baltic Sea in January and entered the western end of the Mediterranean at the end of the month. Last week they stopped at the Russian Navy's base in Tartus Syria on the opposite end of the Mediterranean.

The three 4,080-ton amphibious ships currently in the Black Sea are capable of landing 10 main battle tanks and about 350 troops ashore. The Pytor Morgunov is capable of landing 13 main battle tanks and 300 troops and can field two attack helicopters.

The presence of the ships comes amid a buildup of more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, as the United States and other international observers have expressed concern that Russia is gearing up for an invasion, which the Kremlin has denied.

A U.S. government assessment found that Russia has assembled 70% of the military personnel and weapons needed to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which could lead Kyiv to fall within 48 hours if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to exert his full land and air military forces, according to reports over the weekend.

Seth Jones, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote last month that, an extended invasion would likely involve Russian forces taking Odessa, Ukraine's largest port city on the Black Sea.

"If Russia's objectives include denying Ukraine future access to the sea, it will have to seize Odessa," Jones wrote. "Some predict that this would be accomplished via amphibious and airborne landings near Odessa, which link up with mechanized forces approaching from the east."

The United States has kept the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea and had it drill with other allied ships.