SEVASTOPOL. July 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters on Tuesday denied any missile launches at the vicinity of the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk on July 4.
A pilot of an Israeli Boeing plane flying over Dnipropetrovsk on that day saw a flash that he considered a missile blast.
"Units and formations of the Black Sea Fleet did not conduct any firing on the stated day," Captain Alexander Mordavchenkov, senior officer of the combat training subdepartment in the fleet's missile and artillery armament department, told Interfax-Military News Agency commenting on the incident.
Mordavchenkov said that the missiles in the Black Sea Fleet's inventory "are unable to reach Dnipropetrovsk due to their technical specifications."
At the same time an official of the fleet's press service told Interfax-Military News Agency that the launches of air defense missiles happen only during planned exercises of air defense units.
"In August the Black Sea Fleet will hold a planned training session during which various firings including those by air defense units will take place," the official said.
The pilot of the Boeing that flew from Tel Aviv to Moscow late on July 4 said that a surface-to-air missile was launched at the aircraft in the vicinity of Dnipropetrovsk. The Ukrainian authorities deny the statement saying that no launches of missiles happened in the republic that day.