"Massive protests against the exercise will start on July 4, as this is when the military planning phase starts, involving the arrival of troops and military equipment," the Communist Party said in a statement.
The Communist regional office in Odessa, a major port and administrative center in southern Ukraine, has applied for a permit to stage protests at Odessa's main sea terminal, and set up an Anti-NATO Self-Defense Committee to hold media briefings and news conferences promoting the movement. The smaller Progressive Socialist Party also said it would protest.
The annual exercise, part of the NATO-led Partnership for Peace program will be based in Odessa and neighboring Nikolaev, a Soviet-era naval shipbuilding center.
Last year's exercise in the Crimea, Sea Breeze 2006, was obstructed by protests with the United States redeploying its ship to another location. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said the official reason was, "to assist with the evacuation of civilians from Lebanon."
In Russia, Gennady Zyuganov's Communist party also prevented a major Russia-U.S. joint exercise, Torgau 2006, from taking place last fall by blocking American officers from entering the training base near Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga.
