Ukraine begins military exercise near Crimean Peninsula

A military spokesman in Kiev said that Ukraine's military exercise had started as planned, despite Moscow's warnings that it would use its over 50,000 soldiers based in Crimea as well as its warships to shoot down Ukrainian missiles. The Ukrainian military is holding the large-scale exercise, including the firing of missiles in the direction of the Black Sea, on Thursday and Friday on the border of the peninsula. Russia's aviation authority said Wednesday that Kiev had made a unilateral decision to carry out the missile-firing exercise in Russian airspace above the Crimean Peninsula, endangering commercial flights that pass through the area. The Russian Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry also slammed the exercise earlier in the day.