Ukraine and Turkey hold joint naval exercises in the Black Sea
The crew of the small armored artillery boat Vyshhorod of the Ukrainian Navy carried out PASSEX type joint exercises with TCG Barbaros frigate and TCG Marti assault boat of the Turkish Navy in the Black Sea, reported the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
“During the current exercises, almost simultaneously, 67 Turkish military units will visit forty foreign ports in the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. A frigate and assault boat will visit the port of Batumi, in Georgia, another frigate and minesweeper will visit Constanta in Romania, and a frigate and a submarine will enter the Bulgarian port of Varna,” the statement reads.
During the joint training, the Ukrainian artillery boat and Turkish ships carried out tactical maneuvering tasks, anti-aircraft defense exercises and communications training in accordance with NATO standards.
After carrying out its tasks, the Vyshhorodartillery boat returned to its permanent base and the Turkish boats moored at the quay wall of the marine station in Odessa.
Prior to these exercises, the Ukrainian military also carried out large-scale tactical exercises on the coast of the Sea of Azov in the Joint Forces Operation training range to check the troops’ combat readiness.