As Zelenskiy spoke, 32 ships, 40 airplanes and helicopters and sailors Nfrom 24 countries participated in the naval maneuvers.

Kristina A Kvien, the US Chargé, noted that US Navy Seabees construction engineers helped build a Black Sea operations center for Ukraine’s Navy in Ochakiv, Mykolaiv, and ‘Naval Base East’, a Ukrainian station in Berdyansk, on the Azov. Underlying the potential Russian threat to commercial shipping to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Vadim Skibitsky, of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Main Intelligence Directorate, told UNIAN that Russia’s entire Black Sea fleet has put to sea to shadow Sea Breeze maneuvers.