Second Phase of Military Drills Underway in UK, Four Ukrainian Ships Participating
On 30 June, the second part of the Sea Breeze 2025 multinational exercises was officially opened in Portland, United Kingdom, with the participation of the Ukrainian Navy.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to the Ukrainian Navy.
This year, representatives of 22 countries, including NATO member states and partner countries, joined the maritime component of Sea Breeze 2025. The main theme of the maritime component remains, as usual, mine countermeasures.
Four Ukrainian mine countermeasure vessels, including the Mariupol and Melitopol, which were recently accepted into the Ukrainian Navy, as well as foreign vessels from NATO's standing mine countermeasure group, took to the sea.
The purpose of the exercises is to train units in a realistic environment to ensure full integration into multinational operations.
The main focus will be on assessing the interoperability of Ukrainian units with the requirements and standards of partner countries.
During the opening ceremony, Ukrainian representative Commodore Dmytro Kovalenko thanked the partners for their continued support and assistance and noted that demining the Black Sea is vital for all Black Sea countries, as the safe operation of commercial shipping is the foundation of economic stability and prosperity in the region.
Representative of the US 6th Fleet Rear Admiral Michael Mattis emphasised the importance of the combat experience shared with partners by Ukrainian military sailors, as the Black Sea region, in his words, is a major centre of global trade that is vital for food security.
Earlier, Ukrainian Marine Corps units took part in the multinational Sea Breeze 2025 exercises, a large-scale training complex aimed at deepening cooperation and exchanging experience between the military personnel of friendly countries.
As The Gaze reported earlier, Russia tried to spy on NATO exercises in Lithuania. Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer sees this as proof of the real threat from Moscow.