July 1, 2021: Russian warships have carried out a live fire training exercise in the Black Sea, the country’s Black Sea fleet said on Thursday, as Ukraine and NATO countries held military drills in the same wider area.
The Sea Breeze exercise, led by Ukraine and the United States, follows a spike in tensions between NATO and Moscow after Russia last week said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to expel it from its territorial waters near Crimea.
London has said it does not recognize Moscow’s account of the incident near the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow has demanded that the naval exercises be canceled before they begin, and the Russian Defense Ministry has said it will respond to national security concerns if necessary. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet said in a statement on Thursday that the crew of two large landing ships had fired on naval and air targets in the Black Sea.
The exercise comes two days after Russia tested its defense system in Crimea. The Sea Breeze-2021 will last for two weeks and will include about 5,000 NATO and other allied military personnel, and about 30 ships and 40 aircraft, including the US missile destroyer USS Ross and the US. Marine Corps will participate.
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