US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Saturday blasted Moscow following the Russian navy's "brazen" violation of a waterway treaty with Kiev and the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels.

Speaking of a 2003 agreement governing the Kerch Strait between the Azov Sea and Black Sea, Mattis said Moscow had shown "brazen contempt and dismissal" for the deal "that allowed both Russian and Ukrainian ships free passage."

Mattis was speaking before an audience at a defense forum in California, a day after President Donald Trump went out of his way to dodge Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, citing the capture of the Ukrainian ships.

The defense chief's remarks represent some of the strongest reaction to date by the US over the incident.

Last week, US Ambassador Nikki Haley to the UN accused Russia of "outlaw actions" and an "outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory" while addressing an emergency meeting of the Security Council.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia spiked on November 25 when Russian forces opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, detaining the 24 crew members.

It was the first open military confrontation between the rivals since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and pro-Russian separatists in the east entered into conflict with Ukrainian forces.

Mattis also blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for President Donald Trump's decision in October to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

"We are dealing with Putin's duplicitous violation of the INF treaty," he said, noting that while the US remains in compliance, Russia does not.

"We will re-energize our arms control efforts, but the onus is on Russia," he said.

Ukraine holds military drills after Russia sea confrontation
Urzuf, Ukraine (AFP) Nov 30, 2018 - A Ukrainian general wearing camouflage and a bulletproof vest looks out from his Mi-8 helicopter flying over the Sea of Azov, the flashpoint of rising tensions between Kiev and Moscow.

"Our presumed enemy is Russia. We don't have any other enemies," says Sergiy Nayev, Ukraine's commander of military operations in the pro-Russian separatist east of the country.

The 48-year-old general is observing from the skies anti-aircraft defence exercises near the village of Urzuf on the coast of this small sea, after the Russians seized three Ukrainian military ships and 24 sailors nearby on Sunday.

Ukraine's soldiers are practising repelling a Russian attempt to land on the coast. The ex-Soviet republic believes it is now under threat of a "total war" from Moscow.

"Did you see? We got it!" shouts Nayev as a surface-to-air missile destroys a rocket representing in the exercise an enemy plane.

The incident at sea last weekend was the first open military confrontation between Kiev and Moscow since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

That year saw the start of an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Kiev has imposed martial law for a month in its border regions as it claims Russia is reinforcing its military presence at the Ukrainian frontier.

Nayev says Russia has moved "more than 150 planes and helicopters (and) more than 250 tanks" near the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which are partly controlled by the rebels.

The military exercises at Urzuf on Thursday were planned in advance and take place every two months, but this time in a more tense atmosphere.

"Here, some 30 Russian planes could attack," says the general, explaining why he has beefed up the anti-aircraft defences.

As for the separatists, they "don't have any planes but they have tanks and artillery. All that comes from Russia," Nayev says -- an accusation Moscow denies despite evidence to the contrary.

Two Su-25 fighter planes and two Mi-24 helicopters are taking part in the exercise along the Ukrainian coast of the Sea of Azov not far from the key port of Mariupol.

"By sea, Russia is only about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from here," says Nayev.

But he says the Russians don't come to this area of the Azov. "One day, two ships came but I sent out two (military) planes and they left."

And if the Russians did show up, the Ukrainian defence "is capable of destroying many Russian planes," says Nayev.

Nor should they try to come by sea, the general adds.

"The enemy will not land here. It would not make any sense for him to do that since we will retaliate."

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