Moscow has signalled to the world that it's not happy with NATO’s Exercise Sea Breeze manoeuvres in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula.
Russia is warning Western allies that nothing good will come out of provocations in the Black Sea as any attempts to test Moscow’s willingness to defend its borders are “doomed to failure,” Russia's Embassy in Washington told Newsweek.
"Manoeuvres performed in the immediate proximity to the Russian shores with the use of U.S. and its allies' destroyers, as well as transport and landing ships—are a provocation," the embassy said in a statement commenting on the NATO and US-led Exercise Sea Breeze manoeuvres that ran from 28 June to 10 July.
"Such exercises with imitation of landing operations and Special Forces training activities undermine security in the Black Sea region,” the statement added.
The UK government doesn’t recognise the results of the 2014 Crimean referendum that saw 97 percent of the peninsula’s residents vote to re-integrate it into the Russian Federation. However, it's time for Western partners to accept the reality, according to the Russian Embassy:
"We call on our partners to comprehend one simple thing – the population of Crimea in 2014 already made its choice. It must be respected. The attempts of the West to test Russia's determination to defend its territorial integrity with such provocative exercises are doomed to failure."
"To call this exercise a provocation is to ignore the history of the exercise and the main consistent message," Dixon told Newsweek. "The exercise is a multinational coalition of nations dedicated to partnership and stability in the Black Sea region."
Russia disagrees with this stance, explaining that if similar exercises took place close to US borders, Washington would definitely not be happy about this.
"Imagine a situation where Russia conducts drills in the Gulf of Mexico," the embassy said. "This would have sparked a storm of indignation in the US."
No comments:
Post a Comment