MOSCOW, July 21-RIA Novosti. The Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted exercises to repel air strikes on the border with Crimea, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported on Facebook .
"As part of the tactical training of air defense units <...>, combat crews of Buk anti-aircraft missile systems were trained to repel an airstrike by a conditional enemy," the release says.
The SAM unit performed a multi-kilometer march, deployed Buki in unprepared positions, worked out the search, identification, capture and tracking of air targets, and then made conditional launches, the report says.
The Ukrainian military often conducts exercises on the border with Crimea. So, from June 28 to July 10, Sea Breeze — 2021 joint maneuvers with NATO took place in the Black Sea, in which five thousand servicemen, 40 aircraft and more than 30 ships took part.
There are constant threats from Ukraine to return Crimea. On the eve of Petro Poroshenko, addressing Ukrainian Muslims on the occasion of the Eid al-Adha holiday, promised to return the peninsula to Kiev's control within a year.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that the Crimeans, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. As Vladimir Putin stressed, the issue of Crimea is "completely closed".
