MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - The naval operations center in Ochakiv provides support for NATO ship actions, including the use of precision weapons, in respect of Russia's Black Sea Fleet and coastal infrastructure, President Vladimir Putin said.
"The naval operations center built by Americans in Ochakiv allows to ensure the activities of NATO ships, including their use of high-precision weapons, against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and infrastructure along the length of the Black Sea coast," Putin said in a video address to Russians.
"There was a time when the U.S. meant to create similar facilities in Crimea as well, but the people of Crimea and Sevastopol derailed those plans. We shall always remember that," Putin said.
"I repeat: today such a center has already been built in Ochakiv," he said.
Back in the 18th century "the soldiers of Alexander Suvorov were fighting [for Ochakiv] which became part of Russia thanks to their bravery. Also then, in the 18th century, the lands near the Black Sea which acceded Russia as a result of wars against the Ottoman Empire were named Novorossiya. Now there are attempts to thrust these landmarks of history into oblivion, as well as names of the statesmen and military men of the Russian Empire, without whose labor modern day Ukraine would not have had many big cities and not even the very access to the Black Sea. Recently in Poltava people removed a monument to Alexander Suvorov. What can one say. Are you rejecting your own past, the so-called colonial legacy of the Russian Empire? Well, then be consistent," Putin said.
Article 17 of Ukraine's constitution prohibits the deployment of foreign military bases in the country, he said.
"But it turned out that it was a mere technicality that can be easily bypassed. Ukraine hosts NATO training missions, which are essentially already foreign military bases. They just refer to them as 'missions' and get away with it," Putin said.