DONETSK, July 2 - A pro-Russian party has been recruiting volunteers in the Donetsk region for protests later this month aimed at preventing a military exercise involving NATO troops in Ukraine, a newswire reported.

The Natalia Vitrenko Bloc, which in March 2006 scored less than the 3% threshold required to enter Parliament, was the key party behind the protests that blocked a similar exercise in 2005.

"We are now recruiting the people for the protests," Natalia Bilotserkivska, a Vitrenko Bloc activist, told Ostrov, a local newswire in Donetsk. "The people are actively responding, there are many of those willing to take part."

Ukraine has traditionally hosted the Sea Breeze exercises involving NATO troops on its soil each summer. However, the exercises were canceled and rescheduled after the Vitrenko Bloc and the Communist Party, another pro-Russian group, staged well-organized and well-financed protests in the summer of 2005.

Apparently seeking to prevent protests this year, the government decided to shift the Sea Breeze-2007 exercise away from Crimea, its autonomous region dominated by ethnic Russians, to Odessa and Mykolayiv regions. The exercise, due between July 9 and July 22, is aimed at improving cooperation between Ukrainian and NATO troops and naval forces.

At least 21 naval ships and some 1,200 NATO troops from 14 nations are expected to participate in the Ukrainian exercise offshore Odessa and onshore in the Mykolayiv region.

The protests are due to unfold on July 8, but the Vitrenko Bloc refused to disclose the number of protesters. "We don't know yet whether we will be able to provide food to all those willing to join the protests," Bilotserkivska said.

The 2007 exercise has been approved by Parliament, which is required to approve any deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine. The exercises in 2005 and 2006 have not been approved by the legislature due to boycott from pro-Russian parties and due to on-going political crises in Ukraine.

The staging of the anti-NATO campaign comes as Ukraine prepares for the early election due on Sept. 30.

The Vitrenko Bloc apparently seeks to bolster its popularity in Donetsk, the stronghold of the Regions Party, whose leader Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has publicly refused to join NATO, but had been approving joint exercise with NATO troops.

NATO will probably become an issue during the election campaign as President Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-Western leader, has been seeking to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the alliance.

Russia, which views NATO as a military threat, has been threatening to severe economic and trade relations with Ukraine should the country join the alliance. Russia is Ukraine's main source of natural gas and crude oil.

Yushchenko had been seeking to make sure that Ukraine joins NATO as soon as in 2008, but that timeframe was undermined by Yanukovych in September 2006 when he declared that the accession should be postponed indefinitely. (nr/ez)