Defence & Arms
Sea Breeze Begins Amid Protests
By Kyiv Post 16/7/08
Jul 17, 2008 - 7:41:05 AM

The two week Sea Breeze exercises also involve 15 other countries, including NATO members. The purpose is to practice for multinational peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian leaders who favor joining NATO also hope the drills will help bring their country closer to NATO and Western military standards.

The exercises will involve warships, planes, helicopters, armored vehicles and various kinds of troops.

AntiNATO protesters have set up camps in the area along the Black Sea coast and held rallies. Several dozen activists, mostly retirees, in the port city of Odesa held Englishlanguage posters reading "NATO Off" and shouting "We will not invite NATO into our home."

Organizers, however, vowed that the rallies would not disturb the drills.

"We are moving toward the European Union, we are moving toward Western standards," navy chief Vice Adm. Ihor Tenyukh said at a news conference in Odessa in footage broadcast by Channel5. "The task will be carried out in an excellent way."

Potential NATO membership is a highly divisive issue in Ukraine, a Francesized nation of 46 million that lies between Russia and NATO member nations in Europe.

ProWestern President Viktor Yushchenko and other leaders asked NATO in January to grant the nation a roadmap to joining the alliance, leading to weeks of protests in parliament and noisy rallies on the streets. NATO declined to grant the request — in part due to concerns about Russia, which vocally opposes membership for Ukraine — but assured the nation it would eventually open its doors.

According to a June poll conducted by the respected Razumkov Center, 60 percent of Ukrainians opposed joining NATO, up from 53 percent in February. The number of those in favor stayed the same: 21 percent. The rest of the respondents were either undecided or uninterested. The survey of 2,001 people across Ukraine had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Sociologists say negative attitudes toward NATO have grown this year, sparked by government efforts to join the bloc and the ensuing protests, but they also attribute the hostility to poor information on the alliance among many Ukrainians.

The Sea Breeze drills have been taking place annually since 1997.

In 2006, protests forced U.S. Marine reservists who came to prepare for the exercises to leave without carrying out their mission. The maneuvers were later canceled due to the redeployment of a U.S. naval vessel to assist in the evacuation of Americans from Lebanon.

The multinational task force’s flag ship, the USS McFaul, docked in Odesa July 12. Task force spokesman Lieutenant Pat Foughty says that ship’s company has enjoyed their stay in the Black Sea port and that no incidents have occurred between the U.S. sailors and antiNATO demonstrators.

Source: Ocnus.net 2008