SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Ukraine's navy, which is seeking presence in the Black Sea and Mediterranean, will launch patrolling missions in the Black Sea "some time after January 15," the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Col. Gen. Volodymyr Zamana, said on December 27.
Ukrainian ships will be patrolling areas off the country's shores, Zamana, who is also chief of the General Staff, told reporters in Sevastopol.
"It is Snake Island, the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian industrial economic zone where ships will be taking turns for a month in carrying out tasks of maintaining security and control of navigation and the economic activities of enterprises that operate in that zone, and of guarding submarine and water surface space," Zamana said.
The Ukrainian navy would also take part in international exercises and operations in 2013.
"The frigate Hetman Sahaidachny will take part in Operation Ocean Shield in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa and Operation Atalanta for about four and a half months. There will be joint exercises with Spanish and French naval forces in which the large amphibious ship Kostyantyn Olshansky with a marine unit on board will be involved," Zamana said.
"A powerful potential" was used in 2012 to build enough naval strength for all these missions, he said.
"At the moment, the minister of defense has set tasks the main goal of which is to restore the presence of our ships in the Black Sea, in the Mediterranean, and even in the Indian Ocean," the general said.