SIMFEROPOL, June 27. /TASS/. Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov has described the Ukrainian naval wargames on the territory of the nearby Kherson region as a PR stunt, the press service of the Crimean government said on Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian wargames near the border of Crimea, a Russian region, are a PR stunt that doesn’t have any practical meaning from the military point of view," Aksyonov said. "The practical capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are incomparable not only versus the Russian Armed Forces but even versus the [regional] group of Russian troops in Crimea."
"By staging the demonstrative wargames in the immediate vicinity of the Crimean Peninsula, the government in Kiev shows to the whole world it has no plans to give up the policy of terror, intimidation and armed provocations against the people of Crimea," he said. "If the criminal regime [in Kiev] had at least the slightest opportunity to use brute force against the Crimeans with impunity, it would do so without hesitation."
In the light of it, a buildup of the numeric strength of the Russian armed grouping in Crimea was justified and necessary, Aksyonov said.
The press center of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said on Wednesday naval units and the artillery units subordinated to them had held drills in the Kherson region near Crimea.
"In the course of the exercise the artillery cruise drilled the target damaging and did also simulated the adjustment of gunfire to targets in the areas of concentration of enemy forces," the press center said, adding that the artillery crews had also drilled firing in the conditions of limited visibility.