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
Terrific, succinct multimedia piece on Russia's Endgame In Ukraine:
Some of the wires catching up on recent news from the Ukrainian president's office. Here's AP:
Ukraine's president says government and Russian-backed separatist forces have pulled back the bulk of their artillery and rocket launchers from the front line in the east, in compliance with a cease-fire deal.
Petro Poroshenko told a state broadcaster Monday evening that some heavy weaponry remains in place at the airport of the rebel-held city of Donetsk, however.
RT opts, in screen grab below, for "leading to Crimea joining Russia" as a euphemism for "leading to forcible annexation of Crimea":
