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Sea Breeze-2017 was held July 10-22 with the participation of almost 3,500 servicemen from 16 countries as well as about 30 warships and boats, 22 aircraft, and about 100 vehicles, including armored equipment.

"As Vice-Admiral Igor Voronchenko, commander of the Naval Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, noted during the closing ceremony in Odesa, the participants of the latest Sea Breeze drills managed to expand the format of the exercise at sea, in the air and under water," the defense ministry spokesman said.

"One of the features of the maneuvers was the approbation of the naval operational headquarters, the kind that is planned to be introduced in the organizational structure of the national naval forces at the end of this year," he said.

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Read alsoU.S. deploys warships, Navy Seals for massive drills off Ukraine coast - media"The commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stressed that the national naval forces in the course of these exercises took another important step in the issue of working out interoperability and moving toward NATO standards," Hutsuliak said.

During Sea Breeze-2017, naval crews covered more than 5,000 nautical miles, 60 joint exercises and elements were carried out, 850 parachute jumps, six sea assault team landings, 300 dives, as well as more than 310 sorties by aircraft involved, and divers made about 300 dives, according to the defense ministry spox.