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Black Sea tensions as Sea Breeze exercise opened
Summary
A look back at the Black Sea on 29 June 2021, a day after large naval drills began and days after a clash involving HMS Defender.
What was the mood in the Black Sea on 29 June 2021? It was tense, with a major military exercise under way and a diplomatic dispute between Russia and the United Kingdom still fresh.
The Sea Breeze naval exercises had started on 28 June 2021. As reported at the time, they were the largest in the history of the drills.
The exercise opened days after an incident near Crimea. On 23 June 2021, Russia's Defence Ministry said a Russian Navy patrol ship fired shots and a Su-24 attack aircraft dropped bombs in the path of the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender, which it said had entered Russian-claimed territorial waters. The UK Ministry of Defence rejected that account. It said the Russian action was part of an exercise in the vicinity and denied that shots or bombs had been directed at the ship.
On 24 June 2021, Moscow escalated its rhetoric. Russia warned that it would bomb British vessels if the Royal Navy took any further provocative action in the Black Sea. It had earlier summoned the British ambassador over the incident.
London held its position. The UK said the vessel had been in Ukrainian waters, that using the route was entirely right, and that the Royal Navy would always uphold international law and would not accept unlawful interference with innocent passage.
The result, on 29 June 2021, was a sea hosting large-scale drills alongside an open exchange of warnings between Moscow and London.
