July 22 finished the International Ukrainian-American naval exercises Sea Breeze – 2017 in Ukraine, which was held in the Odessa and Nykolaiv regions.
The journalists of The Maritime Telegraph watched the preparation of the military camp, as well as the conducting exercises throughout the day.
The organization of the exercises this year cannot be estimated as successful and meeting the international level.
The land phase of the exercises was held in Nikolaev, where a camp was built for all military representatives from more than a dozen countries, including Americans, Georgians, and Romanians. By the way, representatives of Moldova refused to participate in Sea Breeze – 2017 at the last moment for some political reasons, although until the very last moment they had planned to take part in it.
It is impossible not to notice that the camp was prepared absolutely untimely, which entailed a delay in the settlement of marines, who were representatives of the Ukrainian army and were masters of the exercises. Due to poor preparation, the first installations began on July 10, although they should have moved in a week earlier. The camp should have been completely ready since July 2.
Sea Breeze – 2016 Sea Breeze – 2017
The showers were brought with great delay, 5 days later than the due date. Bathrooms and other equipment were brought after people had arrived. The military began to call in, but there were no toilets and showers, but even a couple of days without toilets and showers – it’s a collapse!
Instead of sanitizers in old USSR period tents for food were installed hoses with water, which flowed directly under the tent. Tents for dining should be larger and equipped with appropriate equipment.
All Soviet tents for housing flowed during the rain because they were not stretched enough and holed. There was nothing else except beds.
Sea Breeze – 2016 Sea Breeze – 2017
Also, there were problems with light in the camp, the wires were burned out, and there was not enough power.
According to the journalists, sanitary standards of living conditions also left much to be desired. A third of the toilet bowls did not work, cleaning was not carried out properly, there were puddles of water near the dining room that it was impossible to walk, there was no tapping of water. It was necessary to put several wooden pallets, so as not to walk in the water. They failed to take out water from the dug-in containers, the water filled the ditches and was poured constantly. Cleaning in the dining rooms was scarcely carried out.
When the reservoirs for the sewer were overfilled, it was all pumped over to the field next to the camp and spilled on the ground, no one took anything out. This is an unprecedented fact that violates all sanitary and environmental standards.
Sea Breeze – 2016 Sea Breeze – 2017
As you know, Americans are investing a lot of money in the Sea Breeze exercises, but for some reason this year’s organization of living conditions was far from perfect.
It turns out that the American colleagues of our military paid a lot for the organization, but did not get what they wanted. The contractor, who had been chosen to organize a tent camp at the “Shyrokii Lan”, failed the task.
We also addressed for comments to the press service of the President of Ukraine, who personally attended the port of Odessa and spoke at the Hetman Sagaidachniy, but who apparently was afraid to go to Shyrokii Lan and look at the level of the organization. We did not receive an answer from the press service of the President.
A solemn closing ceremonies of the Ukrainian-American exercise “Sea Breeze – 2017” were held on July 22 in Odessa and in the Nykolayiv region.
Servicemen from 15 countries (including Great Britain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, France and Sweden) participated in maneuvers of the sea and land phases. They drew on almost 3,500 servicemen, about 30 ships, 22 units of aviation equipment, and about 100 pieces of automobile and armored vehicles.
The main feature of this year’s Ukrainian-American exercises Sea-Breeze was a change in the structure of the headquarters, which this year consisted of the leadership of the exercises and the headquarters of the naval command, developed according to NATO standards. Also the method of conducting differed from previous exercises – international maneuvers were held in the free play way.
As it was said during the closing ceremony, more than 5,000 nautical miles were passed by the ships’ personnel, 60 joint exercises and elements were carried out; 850 parachute jumps, 6 naval assaults, aviation carried out more than 310 sorties, its total flight time is 240 hours, and divers performed about 300 dives, the total time of their stay under water was 75 hours.
