WASHINGTON, March 6. /TASS/. The US Department of Defense registers a serious increase in the number of Russian vessels going through the Bering Strait, which the Pentagon believes is connected with sanctions against Moscow, US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier told a conference.

Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine the US military "has seen a wholesale change in Russian shipping from counterclockwise usually going West through the northern sea route around Europe and then to other ports, because of the sanctions," he said.

"It is now reversed and is going clockwise East then down through the Bering and we're seeing more and increasing traffic that goes through the Bering Strait, which obviously has implications in terms of safety security as we are a border nation with Russia," Gautier noted without specifying details.