Sofia, Apr 15 (AP) The US secretary of state assured allies bordering the Black Sea on Monday that they could depend on his country's support to make the region more secure, prosperous and integrated.

Addressing the attendes of the Second Black Sea Security Conference in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, via a video feed, Anthony Blinken underscored the importance of investing in the region's security to ensure peace and freedom across Europe.

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Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula — on the northern coast of the Black Sea — in 2014. It has served as a key hub supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine which President Vladimir Putin ordered in February 2022.

“Putin believed that Ukraine's neighbours in the region would be divided, but he was wrong,” Blinken said, adding that "the United States will continue to support Ukraine both so it can defend itself today and stand on its feet.”

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His Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, said his country needed essential military support, including artillery, ammunition, and air defense systems to bolster its capacity in the face of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion.

Kuleba, also speaking via video, said increasing the capabilities of the Ukrainian air defence will also strengthen regional and global stability, as it in turn protects the security of Ukraine's neighbours and the entire Black Sea region from Russian aerial terror.

“Today, there's no other language Moscow understands better than the language of force. This is what they respect, anything else is seen as a weakness,” the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

Kubela also said the Black Sea must become “the sea of NATO, of peace and stability," calling on the alliance to implement “a comprehensive and ambitious Black Sea strategy aimed at reducing Russia's malign influence.”

NATO marked its 75th anniversary earlier this month while weighing a plan to provide more predictable longer-term military support to Ukraine.

The Kremlin wants Kyiv to acknowledge Russia's sovereignty over Crimea and recognise the annexation of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine has adamantly refused.

The conference is co-organised by the Bulgarian and Ukrainian foreign and defence ministries in partnership with Ukraine's Centre for Defence Strategies and aims at strengthening security in the Black Sea region.

Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkiye, and Ukraine border the Black Sea. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)