Annual military Sea Breeze Exercise is taking place in the Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea.

This is reported by News.bg.

Fleets of 11 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries are participating in the military maritime exercises.

Naval forces of Bulgaria, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, the USA, Turkey, France, and the NATO Navy Command are participating in the exercises.

24 warships and cutters, 5 aircraft, 4 helicopters, and 1,390 military personnel are participating in the Sea Breeze-2022 maneuvers.

These are the first large-scale exercises in the Black Sea since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February this year.

All necessary measures were taken in the training areas to ensure the safety of the participants due to the risk of free-floating anti-ship mines in the sea area.

In recent years, summertime Sea Breeze Exercise was a traditional Black Sea naval maneuver that also included the Navy of Ukraine.

Sea Breeze is a multinational military exercise that has been held on the territory of Ukraine since 1997 in accordance with the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation on Defense and Military Relations between the US Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The training consists of sea, land, and air components.

Last year, the main tasks of the exercises were to prepare servicemen, headquarters, and units of the Navy of Ukraine for joint actions with military formations of the armed forces of NATO member states.

The goals also included gaining experience in operational planning, conducting combat operations according to NATO standards and procedures, increasing the level of interoperability.