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Italian warship taking part in NATO’s ‘routine drills’ — top brass

The maneuvers are scheduled to last until July 10

ROME, July 1. /TASS/. The Italian guided missile frigate Virginio Fasan is taking part in NATO’s drills in the Black Sea as part of ‘routine activity,’ the Italian Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by TASS on Thursday.

"The warship is taking part in NATO’s drills in the Black Sea as part of routine activity under the control of the alliance’s rapid reaction forces. In particular, the frigate Virginio Fasan is participating in the Sea Breeze 2021 drills," the statement says.

The maneuvers are scheduled to last until July 10 in the northwestern part of the Black Sea and also in the south of Ukraine. They involve 30 NATO countries, the Italian Defense Ministry specified.

The Italian warship is part of the NATO Standing Maritime Group 2, which is one of the alliance’s four multinational rapid reaction forces, the statement says.

"The command of the Fasan, like the command of the group’s other warships guarantees the commitment to building up the relations of cooperation with other countries of the region," according to the statement.

Russia’s National Defense Control Centre reported earlier on Thursday that the Black Sea Fleet was tracking the Italian guided missile frigate Virginio Fasan that had entered the Black Sea.

Black Sea incident

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on June 23 that the Black Sea Fleet jointly with the border guards of the Federal Security Service (FSB) halted a violation of the state border by the UK Navy’s guided missile destroyer Defender off Crimea’s Fiolent Cape in the Black Sea.

The British warship ventured three kilometers into Russia’s territorial waters. A Russian guard ship fired warning shots while a Su-24M bomber dropped bombs along the UK warship’s path to chase it out of Crimean waters.

The Russian Defense Ministry slammed the UK destroyer’s operations as a gross violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and urged the British side to investigate the warship crew’s actions.

London claims that the destroyer was conducting an "innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters". According to the UK, the Russian military did not fire any shots at the destroyer but conducted "a gunnery exercise".

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