Russia condemned the entry of US warships to the Black Sea, and said that it would continue to protect Russian passengers in eastern Ukraine, while the latter asked Washington to deploy Patriot missiles on its territory.

In statements he made today, Tuesday, Sergey Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, described the entry of US warships into the Black Sea Basin as a provocative act, without explaining whether or not the US ships actually entered the Black Sea.

Ryabkov said that the American side is testing Moscow and playing on its nerves, but it will not succeed in achieving anything, as he put it.

The American "CNN" network revealed a few days ago that Washington was considering sending warships to the Black Sea in the coming weeks to support Kiev, amid the increasing military build-up of the Russian army on the eastern border with Ukraine.

Later, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the presence of US warships in the Black Sea is not new.

In his statements about the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that Moscow will continue to protect the Russian-speaking population in southeastern Ukraine, despite what he described as American threats against his country.

Ryabkov criticized the US statements that indicated that Moscow would pay the price of hostilities in eastern Ukraine, stressing that using such language towards Russia is unacceptable.

He stressed that his country will continue to defend its interests and the interests of Russian-speaking citizens, as he put it.

Earlier, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, warned of the consequences of what he described as a Russian aggression against Ukraine, and expressed his country's concern about Russia's moves in the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine) and the Crimea peninsula, and the mobilization of its forces on the borders of Ukraine, which he said is the largest Since 2014.

In the face of Western accusations of escalation by mobilizing forces and arming loyal Ukrainian separatists in the Donbas region, Moscow said yesterday that it does not seek war, but it will not allow it to happen in eastern Ukraine.

Patriot missiles

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian presidency today called on the United States to install Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems on Ukrainian soil.

And recently, Kiev announced the holding of joint exercises with the forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) within a few months, and also requested to accelerate the pace of its accession to the alliance.

The Ukrainian army announced the death of one of its soldiers and the injury of two in an attack by a drone belonging to the pro-Russian separatists on Ukrainian army positions near the town of Mirosky in the east of the country.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense accused the separatist forces of violating the ceasefire in the Donbas region more than 17 times, and it had recently confirmed that the number of its sites had been exposed to Russian bombing.

Meanwhile, Washington and NATO demanded that Russia stop its military build-up, which they described as aggressive, along the borders of Ukraine and in the Crimea, which Russia annexed to it in 2014.

This came in a phone call between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.