Today the US Navy dock landing ship Whidbey Island has entered waters of the Black Sea, and is heading to the coast of Ukraine to take part in joint drills.
There are 500 marines on board, as well as various military equipment. The vessel itself is 190m long and 26m wide, it was designed as early as in 1970s and was built in 1981. There can be stored 75 tons of cargo, as well as some extra military cars and even tanks and helicopters.
The US destroyer Ross will be also sent into the Black Sea in the nearest future.
Ukraine declared bilateral Sea Breeze-2016 drills, which should have been started 18 July. However, they were delayed, because of Ukraine not being ready at all.
Despite being close to default, Ukraine has launched a budget program to carry out joint drills with foreign troops. Funding makes up more than 500 million euro. Beside that, new legislation has allowed foreign units with potential nuclear delivery vehicles or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction to be deployed in Ukraine.