Ukraine, US to start Black Sea drills despite Russian protest

Major exercise involving thousands of troops, dozens of ships to begin amid tensions between Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukraine and the United States will start a military exercise involving more than 30 countries in the Black Sea and southern Ukraine on Monday, despite Russian calls to cancel the drills. Sea Breeze 2021 follows a rise in tensions between NATO and Moscow, which said last week it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to chase it out of Black Sea waters off the coast of Crimea. The United Kingdom rejected Russia’s account of the incident.