Ukraine launches missile drills near Crimea

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ukraine on Thursday, December 1 unleashed a barrage of missile tests near Crimea in a show of strength and defiance bound to irritate Moscow, AFP reports.

The two-day military drills near the Black Sea peninsula are a first for the former Soviet republic and a sign that it is regaining assertiveness in the face of its arch-foe Russia.

"No one will stop us," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweeted.

"We will be acting in the interests of the people of Ukraine!"

Kiev says Russia illegally annexed Crimea in March 2014 --- a month after Ukraine's Russian-backed president was ousted in a pro-EU revolt.

It also accuses Moscow of backing a 31-month pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's industrial east in a conflict that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.

A Ukrainian military spokesman told the 112.ua Ukraine news site that Kiev was not violating international laws.

"The launches have started. Everything is going according to plan," Volodymyr Kryzhanovskiy was quoted as saying.

He said the war games included air defence units as well military drones and S-300 ground-to-air missile systems.

Kryzhanovskiy added that none of the missiles would land closer than 30 kilometres from Crimea.

The Kremlin did not initially confirm sending warning messages, AFP says.

But spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Thursday's online edition of the Vedomosti daily that Russia would indeed shoot down the missiles if it felt threatened.

Peskov said the tests could "create dangerous conditions for international flights crossing the territory of Russia and neighbouring regions."