NATO has trimmed the scenario for the Sea Breeze exercises
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, NATO leadership has changed the plan for the Sea Breeze 2020 exercise, which is scheduled to take place in July this year in the Black Sea on the lands of historical Novorossiya, which is now part of Ukraine. Due to the risk of contracting Covid-19, all land maneuvers have been excluded from the plan, and the duration of the exercise itself has been reduced to one week.
This was reported by the press service of the State Border Service of Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The head of the exercises on the Ukrainian side, Captain 1st Rank Alexey Doscato, spoke in more detail about the changes.
“On behalf of the commander of the Ukrainian Navy, we appealed to the command of the US 6th Fleet with a proposal to change the Sea Breeze format in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. They fully supported our initiative, because the main thing is to preserve the life and health of military personnel. Therefore, this year we will have the so-called contactless “Sea Breeze”.
The point is that the coastal phase is completely excluded from the exercise plan, so that military personnel of partner countries and Sea Breeze participants do not have contact with each other, and also so as not to deploy a multinational headquarters,” he explained, adding that the number of countries Participants will also change to 10.
The message emphasized that even the traditionally public closing and opening ceremonies of this year’s exercises will be covered only through a broadcast on the official Facebook page of the exercises.
The exercises themselves will be limited to naval maneuvers in order to minimize the contact of military personnel with each other and with the civilian population.
The practical phase of the exercise will also be shortened to one week in July.
Recall that last year the Russian fleet controlled the activities of NATO forces, who participated at the invitation of Ukraine in Sea Breeze 2019 in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
“Maneuvers that take place in the Black Sea without Russia’s participation are always a demonstration. NATO members, it seems to them, are killing several birds with one stone: firstly, they are showing the whole world their supposed peacekeeping forces; secondly, they show us that they feel good at our doorstep; thirdly, they provide support to the Kyiv regime. Hiding behind the guise of peacekeeping, the West is openly practicing landing on the territory of the unstable state of Ukraine the armed forces of a number of countries dominated by the United States, showing that Russia in the region is isolated from peacekeeping activities,” former Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov explained earlier.
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