On October 1 Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) staged special tactical antiterrorist exercises in the docks of the Yalta seaport. Similar training operations have been conducted on the peninsula on a regular basis for some years now, Interfax-Ukraine cited the Crimean SBU headquarters press group as saying. In part, the training operations have repeatedly involved railroad and aviation transport. For the first time, the mechanism of cooperation between the authorities and law enforcement involved in conducting similar operations was worked out at a seaport. According to the exercise, terrorists hijacked a passenger ship and forwarded a set of standard demands, hoping to leave the territory of Ukraine. Following an order by Crimean SBU Headquarters Chief Oleksandr Svyrydonov, head of the antiterrorist center of the SBU operational division, the Internal Affairs Ministry, Ministry for Emergencies, the Army, and divers were put on alert. They were to storm the hijacked ship and, while trying to avoid casualties, free the hostages. After successful completion of the exercises, the operation was studied in detail at the headquarters and the actions of each operational group were evaluated.
