NATO begins naval military drills in Black Sea

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched navy drills in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula amid the Ukraine crisis.

The war games began on Friday and will be held in the Western section of the Sea, Bulgaria’s defense ministry said.

The Western military alliance’s exercises are hosted by Bulgaria and will be joined by other NATO members, including the US, Greece, Romania and Turkey.

Among the naval vessels to participate in the drills include British HMS Chiddingfold, four destroyers from NATO’s maritime Immediate Reaction Force, a US patrol aircraft and other navy ships from the participating member states.

The drill will continue until July 13 and will take place some 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the Crimean peninsula which has recently join Russia.

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia, following a referendum a day earlier, in which 96.8 percent of participants voted in favor of the secession.

The move sparked angry reactions from the US and the European Union, both imposing “punitive measures”, including travel bans and assets freezes, against a number of Russian officials as well as authorities in Crimea.

In addition, the US has deployed troops to eastern European countries for joint drills and sent ships to the Black Sea for war games with regional NATO states.

Russia has called NATO’s eastward expansion near its borders as counterproductive. Moscow sees the Western military alliance’s moves as a sign of aggression amid the crisis in Ukraine.