The Ukrainian-American exercise Sea Breeze 2018 kicked off in Odesa on Monday.

Ihor Voronchenko, Commander of the Ukrainian Navy, said during the opening ceremony of the exercise that representatives of 19 countries and over 2,000 soldiers will take part in the exercise.

More than 30 ships and boats, including a Turkish submarine, as well as over 20 aircraft, will take part.

The theme of the exercise is "Conducting a national maritime security operation in a crisis region."

A special feature of the exercise this year will be that the management of all the components of the exercise will be carried out from the U.S. Navy command ship, the flagship of the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet, the USS Mount Whitney, which is participating for the first time in Sea Breeze.

The multinational headquarters of the exercises is based at the newly created naval command of Ukraine's Armed Forces.

The main elements and tasks of the exercises will be the actions of anti-ship and anti-air defense, landing of sea assault, tactical maneuvering.

The area of the exercises is Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, as well as training areas in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.