The importance of a training operation in Scotland to help Ukraine and its allies find and dispose of mines in the Black Sea “cannot be underestimated”, a senior Ukrainian navy officer has said.
Final preparations are underway ahead of the launch of Exercise Sea Breeze 2024, which this year aims to help Ukraine and its allies to train for a post-conflict era in the Black Sea.
Held every year, the exercise begins on Wednesday, will last for two weeks, and will provide the Ukrainian sailors with new skills to help detect mines underwater.
Members of the US navy, the Royal Navy and the Ukrainian navy, who together form a joint mine countermeasure team, gathered at the King George V Dock in Glasgow this week ahead of the exercise.
The purpose of the exercise is to address the challenges that mines pose to maritime safety and security, global food security and commerce.
Training is to take place on two former Royal Navy vessels, which have been repurposed and given to the Ukrainian navy.
READ MORE: Warships gather in Glasgow ahead of a major NATO exercise
The operation focuses on the integration and command and control of mine countermeasure vessels and a Ukrainian task group HQ augmented by international staff officers and mentors.
Commodore Dmytro Kovalenko, chief of training command of Ukrainian navy command, said: “The ships are fully capable and combat ready.
“They have boosted significantly our efforts. They have also provided our ship crews with the opportunity to gain Nato-standard knowledge and to work according to Nato standards and procedures.
Asked about what threats they are concerned about, and how things will change after the war, he said: “The main danger now in the Black Sea is Russian aggression against Ukraine obviously, but after the war ends we expect to use these assets and the skills the forces gain to secure port areas to de-mine, dispose of all the mines, to provide security of the ships.
“This will boost not only the security of the Black Sea region but also the economy of Ukraine – it will help its development.
“Taking into account the mine danger is a really specific one that not only threatens Ukrainian shores, we have a lot of cases of mine dangers near the Romanian and Bulgarian waters as the current works in that way”.
He added: “We have a wide range of courses here for training in Great Britain, the Sea Breeze gathers all these groups, all these people who were trained here and it’s more practical, more in field training of the mining skills, so the importance of Sea Breeze cannot be underestimated”.
Countries and organisations scheduled to participate, observe, or mentor during Sea Breeze include Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Turkey.
The exercise is scheduled to run from June 26 to July 5 in the Firth of Clyde near Glasgow and Loch Ewe on the north-west coast of Scotland.
It is the first of three Sea Breeze exercises to be held in 2024, with another two to be held in Bulgaria later this year.
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