Seven NATO member states have started a naval exercise in the Black Sea on March 10.
The naval rapid-reaction force in the drills comprises a U.S. flagship, the guided-missile cruiser USS Vicksburg, and ships from the six other participating states -- Black Sea countries Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, plus Canada, Germany, and Italy.
NATO has held a series of exercises in eastern Europe, aimed in part to reassure members concerned about Russian intentions following Moscow's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March 2014 and its moves in support of separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.
A Bulgarian navy spokesman said the training would include simulated antiair and antisubmarine warfare exercises, as well as simulated small boat attacks and basic ship handling maneuvers.
Last week, the defense ministry in Moscow said it had begun large-scale military exercises in southern Russia and in disputed territories including Crimea and Abkhazia, a breakaway, Moscow-backed region of Georgia on the Black Sea.
-- Based on reporting by Reuters, digi24.com
More details, via our newsroom, of the latest flurry of fighting despite the cease-fire:
Ukraine Says Rebels Violating Cease-Fire
From our newsroom, more Lavrov sarcasm:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has suggested the West should impose sanctions on Kyiv to further a deal to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking on March 10, Lavrov accused Ukraine of reneging on commitments he said it made under the February 12 deal reached in Minsk for a cease-fire and steps toward peace between the government and Russian-backed rebels.
Lavrov said that "full implementation of the Minsk agreements is essentially being blocked by the Kyiv authorities."
"I don't know what instruments of pressure on Kyiv the Americans and Europeans have," he said. "But maybe [they should] impose their favorite mechanism of sanctions on Kyiv in this case."
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over its interference in Ukraine and support for the separatists.
Lavrov claimed Kyiv has cast doubt on what he said were obligations to organize an amnesty and create "working groups" including rebels to discuss economic, political, and humanitarian issues.