Operation Sea Breeze is an annual Ukraine and U.S. co-hosted multinational maritime exercise held in the Black Sea and is designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations to strengthen maritime security and stability within the region. Naval forces from several nations participate in the mid-summer in the annual Black Sea exercise. The routine, annual training exercise, co-hosted by the U.S. and Ukrainian Navies, aims to strengthen maritime security and stability, sharing information and building teamwork and mutual cooperation. It also serves to validate aspects of the Ukraine’s military training program.
Operation Sea Breeze Logo
The logo incorporates the US and Ukrainian flags since both nations host the exercise.
Black Sea Security
The security environment in the wider Black Sea region—which brings
together the six littoral states (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey
and Ukraine) and a hinterland including the South Caucasus and Moldova—
is rapidly changing. It combines protracted conflicts with a significant conventional military build-up that intensified after the events of 2014: Russia’s takeover of Crimea and the start of the internationalized civil war in eastern Ukraine. Operation Sea Breeze and other U.S. military exercises in the Black Sea serve to provide stability and protection of U.S. interests in this area.