Russia's General Exposes True Goal Of Sea Breeze Exercises In Ukraine

On Wednesday, Major General Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, held a briefing on the planned Ukrainian-American exercise Sea Breeze.

During the briefing, a statement was made that “against the backdrop of incessant accusations from Western countries that Russia is allegedly building up its military potential in the southwestern borders, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the joint command of the US Armed Forces in the European zone, with the involvement of NATO countries, are planning to conduct Sea Breeze joint exercise."

Its main participants are Ukraine, USA, Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Latvia and partner countries.

This exercise will involve about 4 thousand military personnel, 40 warships, boats and auxiliary vessels, 30 units of aviation equipment and more than 100 units of vehicles and armored vehicles.

That according to the scenario of the exercise, the coalition group of forces will be involved in "stabilizing the crisis situation" caused by the activities of some "illegal" for Ukraine "armed formations", which "the authorities of the neighboring state provide comprehensive support."

In this case, the main issues to be practiced will be:

For the marine component: formation and coordination of a multinational ship formation; organization of interaction of naval forces with formations of land forces and aviation, planning and conducting joint operations; the use of amphibious assault forces in joint actions with land forces in the seaside direction;

For the land component: organizing the work of the headquarters for planning and conducting operations in accordance with NATO standards; the transfer of forces and equipment to areas of combat destination; organizing and conducting an offensive in the seaside direction in cooperation with seaborne assault forces;

For the air component: the use of combat aviation in the interests of the forces of the fleet and land forces: conducting aerial reconnaissance, striking at sea and ground targets, transporting troops and cargo.

The active phase of the exercise will be held in two stages.

At the first stage, the tasks of deploying command and communications posts, planning an operation, forming detachments of warships and redeploying aviation to dispersal airfields will be practiced. At the second stage, a set of measures is envisaged to "stabilize the situation", including: fire engagement of surface and submarine ships of the enemy, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine defence. And, I will emphasize that it is planned to use seaborne assault forces for joint actions of the Special Operations Forces with the Ukrainian land forces on the territory of Ukraine.

Specifically, at military training grounds in the Kherson and Nikolaev regions.

Thus, despite the fact that the exercise is naval in status and even in name, its true boundaries of military activity go far beyond the Ukrainian sector of the Black Sea.

It is there, on the territory of Ukraine, that the Special Operations Forces will practice the interaction of SOF units of various nationalities in the joint performance of tasks, as well as parachute and assault landing from helicopters, including at night.

And even more, under the guise of the exercise, it is planned to deliver modern weapons, ammunition and material property for the Ukrainian troops.

In the future, as in previous years, all this will be directed to the Ukrainian troops and nationalist formations stationed near the areas not controlled by Kiev in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ministry of Defenсe of the Russian Federation will closely monitor the course of preparation and conduct of the Ukrainian-American exercise Sea Breeze with the involvement of NATO countries and, if necessary, respond adequately to the evolving situation in the interests of ensuring the military security of the Russian Federation.