The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine said Tuesday that it has delivered a note of protest to Moscow over the Russian Black Sea Fleet's alleged missile tests on the Crimean Peninsula without informing Ukraine.
"On April 27, a missile was discovered by Ukrainian border guards near a village in the city of Alushta in Crimea. After investigation, the missile was indeed lost by the Russian Black Sea Fleet during a testing in the Black Sea military training field", the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The missile testing at the Ukrainian territory was not agreed with Ukraine. Therefore, the agreement on stationing the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine had been violated, the statement stressed.
However, the Ukrainian side said that this incident cannot be a reason for demanding the withdrawal of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Crimea.
"The case of the missile cannot be a reason for considering the issue of the early withdrawal of the fleet," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych told a briefing on Tuesday.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet said in a statement on Tuesday that "the item was not live and posed no threat to either the local residents or the environment," according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
"The item which was found is a capsule with a dummy load. There are no explosives inside this item," the paper said.
The Black Sea Fleet also expressed bewilderment regarding the reaction of the Ukrainian side to an event "which happened 10 days ago."
Source:Xinhua
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