By Mykhailo Yelchev
August 23, 1997
DONUZLAV, Ukraine (Reuter) - Ships from five countries, including the United States, arrived at Ukraine's Crimean peninsula Saturday to take part in naval exercises opposed by Moscow.
Russia, whose Black Sea fleet is based nearby in the port of Sevastopol, rejected an invitation from Ukraine's Defense Ministry to take part in the Sea Breeze 97 exercises, but agreed to send observers.
The ships from Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Turkey and the United States arrived at Donuzlav naval base in western Crimea to the sound of music from a Ukrainian military band.
``These exercises are of great importance,'' Gennady Khaidarov, deputy commander of the Georgian navy, told Reuters.
The week-long exercises, due to start Monday, were also opposed by Ukrainian communists who advocate anti-NATO policies and closer ties with Moscow.
Local Crimean communists plan to hold a march and rally against Sea Breeze Monday in the town of Yevpatoria, 25 miles south of Donuzlav.
Ukraine changed the initial plan, which foresaw troops disembarking onto the Crimean coast, and switched the main part of exercises from Crimea, where 75 percent of population is ethnic Russian, to the southern regions of Mykolayiv and Odessa.
The exercises, initially due to include combat training, will now have a strictly humanitarian theme.
The deputy commander of the Ukrainian navy, Kostyantyn Lebedev, said Sea Breeze was largely sponsored by the United States in the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program (PFP).
He was responding to criticism from leftists that the government was spending too much at a time when Ukraine's economy was still in poor shape. Defense Ministry sources put the cost of the exercises at $2 million.
After the three Baltic states, Ukraine was the first of the former Soviet republics to join PFP. It has taken part in dozens of joint exercises with NATO troops abroad and hosted several ground exercises on its territory.
---------------------
Johnson's Russia List
#1141
24 August 1997
djohnson@cdi.org
