Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko (file photo) (RFE/RL)
June 8, 2006 -- Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko today said that Ukraine and Britain have postponed planned joint military exercises. The Tight Knot 2006 exercises had been scheduled to start on June 14.
Hrytsenko said a new date will be set later, and will need the support of parliament.
A series of planned joint exercises with Western countries have sparked continuing protests in Ukraine's Crimea by pro-Russian groups.
The protests led to a scuffle on June 8 between pro- and anti-NATO demonstrators in the Black Sea port of Feodosiya. The ruckus began when a group of activists from the Pora party tried to unfurl banners with pro-NATO slogans near a group of some 300 supporters of the Party of the Regions and several smaller pro-Russian, anti-NATO parties.
Each side blamed the other for the disturbance, which ended when the police intervened.
(Reuters, Interfax-Ukraine, forum.ua)
RFE/RL Belarus, Ukraine, And Moldova Report
RFE/RL Belarus, Ukraine, And Moldova Report
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