Ukraine, NATO launch joint Black Sea drills

Ukraine and NATO are launching drills in the Black Sea that will involve dozens of warships

KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraine and NATO on Monday launched Black Sea drills that will involve dozens of warships, an exercise that follows last week's incident with a British destroyer off Crimea. Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on Wednesday to force her out of an area near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Britain denied that account, insisted its ship wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters. The Sea Breeze 2021 maneuvers that began Monday and will last for two weeks are set to involve about 30 warships and 40 aircraft from U.S. and its NATO allies and Ukraine. U.S. destroyer Ross has arrived in the Ukrainian port of Odessa for the drills.