Russia protests Ukraine's plans to conduct missile tests near the Crimea
The Russian Defense Ministry submitted a note of protest to the Ukrainian Defense Attaché over Ukraine’s plans to conduct missile tests near the Crimea.
Moscow claims that such tests would be “a violation of international law and Russian legislation.
"The document, handed to the defense attaché, expresses the Russian Defense Ministry’s protest against… [Ukraine’s use of] the airspace over the Black Sea to the west of the Crimean Peninsula coast for rocket firings", the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, recently stated that Kyiv was not planning on conducting missile tests in the Kerch Strait, noting that Russian airspace in the Black Sea ends in the middle of the strait.
"All the rest of the territory to the west of the Kerch Strait is the sovereign airspace of Ukraine", Turchynov emphasized, adding that Ukraine carries out missile tests within the legal boundaries of international commitments and agreements.
Earlier, Russia had demanded that Ukraine cancel its missile exercises in the Simferopol area. It was alleged that Kyiv "unilaterally decided to conduct rocket tests in the sovereign airspace of the Russian Federation."