The annual Sea
Breeze exercise is the largest naval, air, and land multinational military
exercise hosted by Ukraine since 1997 and held in the Black Sea region in
collaboration with the U.S. Navy. The purpose of the Sea Breeze exercise is to
address a number of maritime security issues including counter-piracy,
humanitarian relief operations, search and rescue, live fire, among other tasks.
The results of media analysis of popular perception of the Sea Breeze exercise in
Ukraine, based on a sample of five Ukrainian regional and national newspaper
publications from 2001 until 2013, uncover several underlying themes describing
the nature of public resistance to these exercises. The study affirms that
Ukraine is not a uniform country, and any kind of successful public information
campaign regarding the Euro-Atlantic prospects of Ukraine would have to address
multiple security and non-security issues, as well as the region-specific
concerns.
When examining the change of the public perception over time, it turns out that
although the generally negative public perception of foreign military exercises
on Ukrainian territory did not change significantly, the reporting of the issue
in the Southern and Eastern regional newspapers became more moderate after the
change of the post-Orange Revolution government. More in-depth content analysis
of particular newspaper publications offers some insights regarding the changes
in public perception. Thus, President Victor Yuschenko made foreign policy one
of his top priorities in office, attempting to bring Ukraine closer to the
Euro-Atlantic community, foster the process of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, and
pursue a larger pro-European Union agenda. At the level of public perceptions,
however, such an assertive pro-western foreign policy agenda was not
well-received by the public, especially in relation to NATO. As the example of
the Sea Breeze exercises demonstrate, since the Ukrainian public was not
adequately prepared for the presence of foreign military forces on its
territory, the Sea Breeze exercises caused massive protests in Crimea and other
regions of Ukraine. In fact, during the post-Orange Revolution period, most of
the governmental critique about Sea Breeze in local papers is directed against
the President himself and his policies. Hence, the perceived assertive pro-western objectives of
the Sea Breeze exercise resulted in the greater public resistance against this training, particularly in the Southern
and Eastern regions of Ukraine.
Yuschenko’s successor President Victor
Yanukovych employed a more moderate position that included re-framing Ukraine’s
military doctrine and adopting a non-alignment policy towards NATO. He has attempted to redevelop and improve
relations with Russia, and to establish Ukraine as a neutral country with many
friends rather than one main strategic ally. Consequently, although this more
moderate governmental policy slowed Ukraine several steps back on its
Euro-Atlantic path, it also reduced many of the common public fears associated
with NATO and, in some ways, created a more conducive environment for the Sea
Breeze exercises. Although anti-Sea Breeze protests did not stop completely and
the public did not change their overall views, people became more accepting of this
training, and media reporting became more constructive and more factual, as
illustrated by the following quotes:
"Only the toughest optimists
believed that the end of the “orange” period in the new Ukrainian history will
immediately make things better. In reality, not everything changed for better,
and not everything changed immediately. We already learned that… The Parliament
Deputies all together supported conducting in Crimea those sadly remembered
drills “Sea Breeze”. As if there was no large-scale Crimean public protests
against the presence of the American military in the Peninsular, and there was
no appeal of the Crimean Parliament to their national colleagues and the
President asking, to cancel the drills right in the middle of a tourism season.
Now, the new government, similar to Yuschenko and Tymoschenko, is in a hurry to
make an agreement with Crimean Tatar radicals… trying to gain their loyalty in
the land issues"…Krymskaia pravda,
No. 89, May 22, 2010
"As part of the preparation for the international educational exercises
“Sea Breeze”, the navy forces of the border patrol unit of the Military-Naval
Complex of Ukraine have completed their training in the Western Crimea and are
heading to the main area to continue the drills… The military equipment and
personnel are stationed on the ships “Konstantin Olshanskyy” and “Kirovohrad”.
The series of civil tactical exercises preceded the main training program.
Today the ships with the soldiers will arrive to the final training
destination". Krymskaia pravda, No.
121, July 09, 2010
One lesson that could be drawn from this is
that pursuing a one-sided and foreign policy agenda in a geopolitically divided
country like Ukraine might not be the right path to achieving the desired
outcome. The Sea Breeze lessons are applicable to other important foreign
policy issues, including Ukraine’s relations with NATO. The example of Sea
Breeze demonstrates that before the question of NATO membership reaches the
point of a national referendum, a much more serious and long-term public
information campaign needs to be conducted in Ukraine, to raise the level of
public awareness regarding NATO and collaborative international security in
general. Perhaps, such a campaign could also address the issues of military and
institutional reform, and popularize the idea of transparent and effective public institutions
and the value of international collaboration more generally, thus informing the
Ukrainian public about the broader implications of the Euro-Atlantic path.
