Defense Ministry: Russian warships block Ukrainian maritime economic zones

"Growing intensity of stay of foreign ships in Ukrainian ports and in the Black Sea is significant for the naval activity of Ukraine. This allows us to solve three main tasks. First, it is a deterrent to the dominant naval presence of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea. Second, it helps the Ukrainian Navy in education and training, allowing to improve their professional skills. And the third task concerns the actual implementation of tasks of the defense reform concerning the deployment of new naval command and control bodies and the creation of military-technical capabilities that will allow responding to threats from the sea at the early stages of their occurrence," Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine for European Integration Anatoly Petrenko said, the press service of the Ministry reports.

According to him, the issue concerning the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea is a difficult one. The Russian Federation blocks significant water areas on a permanent basis and under the pretext of exercises, namely around the illegally captured Ukrainian oil and gas fields on the underwater shelf, which are constantly guarded by the forces and means of the Black Sea Fleet. “Our exclusive economic zones are also under the constant control of Russian warships,” Petrenko stressed.

He recalled that in order to protect the economic activities of the ports in Berdyansk and Mariupol, a set of forces and means of the Ukrainian Navy had been deployed that perform tasks to eliminate threats posed by the Russian Federation at sea.

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