Merkel snubbed US demand to send German warships to Russia's backyard

Angela Merkel resisted US pressure to deploy German Navy warships to the Kerch Strait for naval exercises during her February 16 meeting with the US Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Sputnik reported citing Bloomberg.

Paraphrasing the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg indicated that Pence wanted Merkel to send Deutsche Marine ships into Russian waters to "show Putin that Western powers" wouldn't "surrender their access to those waters."

Merkel reportedly rejected the proposal, the sources said, citing 'reservations' from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the one-time maneuver wouldn't keep the strait open permanently.

The German government declined to comment on Bloomberg's report.