Russia urges U.S. not to take part in ‘aggressive’ Sea Breeze-2021 exercises
Russia calls on the United States not to take part in the multinational military exercises Sea Breeze-2021, said the Russian Embassy in the United States.
According to the Russian side, the Sea Breeze exercises are "large-scale and aggressive" and these exercises allegedly do not meet the real security objectives in the Black Sea region.
The Russian embassy also said that these exercises "increase the risks of unintentional incidents, as well as encourage Kyiv’s militaristic sentiment."
"All emerging problems in this region can be solved by the Black Sea states without "imposing" outside assistance," the embassy said.
Earlier, Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council, Oleksii Danilov, said that “the aggressor country should not be allowed to turn the Black Sea into a "Russian lake”.
Sea Breeze are multinational military exercises that are held in Ukraine since 1997 in accordance with the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding and Defense Cooperation and Military Relations between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. The exercises are organized and headed by Ukraine and the United States. The exercises are held annually.