Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a welcome ceremony in front of the 'Vice-Admiral Kulakov' large anti-submarine ship in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia, on Tuesday
Russia will increase its Black Sea fleet with more than 80 new warships by 2020 and will complete a second naval base for the fleet near the city of Novorossiysk by 2016, its commander said on Tuesday.
In comments made to President Vladimir Putin as he visited the port city, Vice Admiral Alexander Vitko said a second Black Sea base was needed in addition to the main base on the Crimea peninsula annexed from Ukraine because of Nato expansion.
'Eighty ships and other vessels are expected to arrive (in Novorossiysk) before 2020. The Black Sea Fleet will have 206 ships and vessels by 2020,' Vitko told Putin.
'Nato ships are constantly present in the Black Sea and it plans to establish a naval base in the Black Sea,' he added.
The comments came amid fresh reports of fighting around Donetsk airport between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops.
Putin is seen visiting the Vice-Admiral Kulakov Russian Destroyer at the Naval Base of the Black Sea Fleet on September 23
Nato has regularly conducted naval exercises in the Black Sea, especially since Russia annexed Crimea, populated mainly by ethnic Russians, in March partly from fear that Ukraine's new pro-Western authorities might try to join the Atlantic alliance.
A Nato official told Reuters in Brussels there were no alliance plans to build a Black Sea base but said it already had access to the resources of member states in the region.
'Our Black Sea allies have ports that we use from time to time but (there are) no plans to build a Nato base as suggested,' the official said.
Three Nato members have a Black Sea coastline - Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.
The former Soviet republic of Georgia, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, has sought membership in the past but like Ukraine is very unlikely to be admitted any time soon due to Moscow's fierce opposition to Nato's further eastern expansion.
During Nato exercises in western Ukraine earlier this month, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu promised to boost the number of troops in Crimea.
A stony-faced Putin inspects information stands on the development of the Azov and Black Sea region ports infrastructure in Novorossiysk
On Tuesday, Shoigu was overseeing Russian military exercises involving 155,000 servicemen in the Far East.
He told Putin in a video conference that the army's firepower and assault capabilities had increased lately as part of spending plans for the armed forces set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
'The firing, assault and manoeuvre capabilities ... have increased due to the supplies of modern weapons and equipment,' Shoigu said.
Russia plans to spend 21 trillion roubles (£330billion) by the end of the decade on refurbishing Russia's armed forces. Some of those funds will be used to improve the defence infrastructure of Crimea.
Russia has staged several military exercises this year, including near Ukraine's border, which have contributed to the tensions with the West, which sees the increased training as sabre rattling amid the persistent disagreements over Ukraine.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian rebels defiantly announced Tuesday they would stage their own elections in November, raising the stakes in a standoff with Kiev despite both sides moving to end five months of deadly fighting.
He told Putin in a video conference that the army's firepower and assault capabilities had increased lately as part of spending plans for the armed forces set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
'The firing, assault and manoeuvre capabilities ... have increased due to the supplies of modern weapons and equipment,' Shoigu said.
Russia plans to spend 21 trillion roubles (£330billion) by the end of the decade on refurbishing Russia's armed forces. Some of those funds will be used to improve the defence infrastructure of Crimea.
Russia has staged several military exercises this year, including near Ukraine's border, which have contributed to the tensions with the West, which sees the increased training as sabre rattling amid the persistent disagreements over Ukraine.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian rebels defiantly announced Tuesday they would stage their own elections in November, raising the stakes in a standoff with Kiev despite both sides moving to end five months of deadly fighting.
Putin and First Deputy Defense Minister Arkady Bakhin (centre) listen to Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Alexander Vitko (left) as they inspect information stands on the development of the Azov and Black Sea region ports
The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said the eastern separatist region would hold elections to choose a parliament and a leader on November 2.
The chairman of the 'Supreme Soviet', or parliament, in the neighbouring Lugansk People's Republic, Alexei Karyakin, told the TASS news agency that the region would hold polls on the same day.
The surprise announcements came just hours after Zakharchenko told the Interfax news agency the insurgents were withdrawing their big guns from the frontline under a peace plan forged with Kiev aimed at ending a conflict that has killed around 3,000 people.
AFP journalists said they saw tanks moving back from an area near Donetsk - the main rebel stronghold in the industrial east - although fighting was reported around the city's airport in the morning.
'We have withdrawn artillery but only in those areas where the Ukrainian regular units have done the same,' Zakharchenko said.
Smoke from a burning fuel dump at the Donetsk airport can be seen from a pro-Russia separatist checkpoint on Tuesday. The airport, occupied by the Ukrainian army, was hit by overnight shelling from rebel positions
'Where Ukraine hasn't withdrawn artillery, we haven't done so.'
Ukraine had said Monday it was starting a pullback under the terms of the deal signed in Minsk on Saturday that calls for both sides to withdraw from the frontline and establish a 30-kilometre (20-mile) wide demilitarised zone.
The separatists launched their uprising against Kiev in April, seizing towns and cities across the eastern rustbelt and holding disputed independence referendums in May for Donetsk and Lugansk.
