Russia deploys warship off Syria coast after tensions mount over Trump's missile strike
RUSSIA has upped the ante by positioning a warship off the coast of Syria as tensions mount after US President Donald Trump ordered a missile strike on the country.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, has responded to the launching of 59 tomahawk missiles by the US by manoeuvring a warship off the Syrian coast and has vowed to bolster missile defences in the Middle East country.
Reuters
The US and Russia are currently facing off to one another over Syria
The frigate Admiral Grigorovich, which is armed with cruise missiles and a self-defence system, has moved from the Black Sea and is expected to dock in Syria later today.
The ship will most likely pass through Mediterranean waters close to where the USS Ross and USS Porter fired the tomahawk missiles that struck the al-Shayrat military airfield near Homs in the early hours of Friday.
Mr Putin called the US missile strike an "illegal act of aggression" and scrapped an agreement to avoid mid-air clashes between Russian and US fighter jets.
Reuters
Admiral Grigorovich sails along the Bosphorus
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that the US strikes were one step away from clashing with the Russian military.
Mr Medvedev, writing on social media, said the US strikes were illegal and had been "one step away from military clashes with Russia."
The chief advisor to Bashir al-Assad, the Syrian President, has also hit out at the US military action, saying it was a "violation of our sovereignty".
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/789279/Syria-Russia-US-Putin-Trump-Assad-warship-frigate