Ukraine began missile-launch exercises near Crimea

Russian Transport Minister, Maksim Sokolov, on the sidelines of the exhibition Transport of Russia, affirmed that the Russian Transport Ministry has observed no air incidents in the airspace over Crimea due to Ukraine’s missile launches. On Thursday morning, the Ukrainian military started missile exercises, including live launches, near Ukraine’s border with Crimea. The Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia earlier said that Ukraine had unilaterally decided in violation of all international treaties to hold missile launches in Russia’s sovereign airspace near Crimea, in the area of civil and government planes’ routes. Yesterday, Rosaviatsia also affirmed that Ukraine issued a new “notification to airmen” (NOTAM) on Wednesday evening  to the effect it has moved the high-risk zones westwards, away from Russia’s territorial waters. The new zones were over international waters and Russia’s territorial waters are not affected.  At the same time, Russian warships from the Black Sea Fleet reportedly took up positions off the Crimean Peninsula to provide air defense.