UKRAINIAN forces fired “a large number” of rockets near the border with Crimea on Tuesday in what it claimed was a planned military exercise.

The provocative drills took place in the southern Kherson region which sits next to the territory annexed by Russia following the 2014 fascist-led coup in Ukraine.

A convoy of vehicles from the Ukrainian army’s southern division arrived on the Crimean border and fired a number of missiles from a multiple-launch rocket system.