Head of the Crimean Parliamentary Committee on Inter-Ethnic Relations Yuri Hempel said that the missile fights conceived by Ukraine near the Crimean border would increase tension in the region. "Ukrainian politicians need to think about how this saber-rattling at the borders of the Russian Federation ends. We remember what similar exercises turned into in 2001, when a Russian airliner was shot down by the Ukrainian military over the Black Sea, ”quoted Hempel RIA Novosti..

The representative of the command of the air forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Dmitry Strutinsky, said earlier that on November 1, Kiev would begin tests of guided missiles in the Kherson region, closing the airspace over the Black Sea. “The Ukrainian military resembles a monkey with a grenade in terms of their skills,” Hempel complained and added that these exercises are most dangerous for Ukraine itself, and the Russian army will fight back any aggressors.. In early December last year, Kiev already conducted rocket firing in sovereign Russian airspace over the Black Sea in the Crimea region..