Editor’s Note:

Crimean War II? A British Royal Navy destroyer, the HMS Defender, was steaming past Crimea’s Cape Fiolent yesterday morning, when a Russia coast guard vessel fired warning shots and then a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M jet dropped four fragmentation bombs in the Defender’s path. That is the Russian Defense Ministry’s version. The British Defense Ministry’s version is that the Russians were conducting gunnery exercise in the area, and the Defender was traveling in an international recognized shipping lane, from Odesa to Georgia. Russia already has asserted control over the Azov, aiming to turn it into a Russian lake. With 80% of Ukraine’s foreign trade coming and going by sea, Russia’s creeping control over the Black Sea makes all the more important the Sea Breeze exercise that starts Monday. Led by the US and Ukrainian navies, the annual exercise counts 32 countries and 32 ships. On Sunday afternoon, I took my 5-year-old son to the Odesa docks to look at the Defender and a Dutch navy frigate, the Evertsen. A rock band warmed up and the mood was festive. Now, things look serious. With Best Regards, Jim Brooke.