Ukraine and NATO “wiped their snot”
The Sea Breeze exercise in 2019 resulted in a Russian victory that forced Ukraine and NATO to retreat in the Black Sea. Ukrainian political scientist Mikhail Gonchar stated this in an interview with the Kyiv newspaper Den.
He recalled how the Sea Breeze scenario had to be changed after Russia announced that it would conduct shooting exercises near Crimea - as a result, the maneuvers previously planned here by the Ukrainians and NATO were canceled.
“There was a precedent at the Sea Breeze exercises recently. We have blocked a certain water area between Crimea and the Odessa region. And Russia took and blocked part of this water area for conducting its exercises. This was done specifically for provocative purposes.
The result is that we and NATO “wiped our snot” and retreated, saying that we will not aggravate the situation. And this is what Russia needs. It was after this that they began to “stamp” prohibited zones in the Black Sea. Their “probing” on Sea Breeze gave the desired effect,” Gonchar laments, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“No one can fight back the Kremlin on their own. Ukraine including. All we can do is work with our allies. But using the example of the situation with Sea Breeze, we needed naval forces. If the water area is closed for exercises, then it is physically blocked: ships are deployed, rather than drawing a line on the map and sending the coordinates to Roshydrography with a “request” to pay attention,” the Ukrainian expert complains.
Earlier in Kyiv it was stated that Russia, for three weeks in July, under the pretext of conducting exercises covered a significant part of the Black Sea near Odessa and Izmail.
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