KIEV, July 3 – Ukraine’s top military and law enforcement officials met on Tuesday to discuss measures to ensure a NATO naval exercise takes place despite planned massive protests by several pro-Russian parties.

One such party, the Union of Orthodox Christian Citizens of Ukraine, a little-known group, vowed 100,000 protesters would show up to picket the exercise in Odessa between July 4 and July 23.

The scale of the planned protests suggests it has been well financed and may dwarf earlier protests in 2005 and 2006 when dozens of people picketed the exercises in Crimea.

The developments also indicate that many different groups, mostly parties using pro-Russian rhetoric, have been simultaneously working in Ukraine to organize the protests.

The Natalia Vitrenko Bloc, which in March 2006 scored less than the 3% threshold required to enter Parliament, has been recruiting the protesters in the Donetsk region.

But Valeriy Kaurov, the head of the Union of the Orthodox Christian Citizens of Ukraine, said at least half a dozen of other groups have been working in other regions to organize the same protests.

The groups, which include a local branch of the Communist Party, a member of the government coalition, and Proryv, a youth group that is thought to have been linked with Russia, created the Odessa Anti-NATO Committee for Self-defense. The committee is supposed to supervise and spearhead the protests.

“We expect at least 2,000 people from other regions,” Kaurov said Tuesday. “We’re not even sure that we can get them properly settled.”

The exercise, known as Sea Breeze-2007, is due between July 9 and July 22. It 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.

Ukraine is sending at least 10 naval ships, three strike jets, eight helicopters, undisclosed number of special troops and marines to join the exercise.

Ukraine has been traditionally hosting the exercises involving NATO troops on its soil each summer in Crimea. However, the exercises had been canceled and rescheduled after the Vitrenko Bloc and the Communist Party, staged well-organized and well-financed protests in the summer of 2005.

Apparently seeking to prevent the 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.

Meanwhile, the protesters have been planning their actions, top military and law enforcement officials met in Odessa on Tuesday to discuss measures aimed at ensuring the exercise goes ahead.

Vice Admiral Viktor Maksymov, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s Naval Forces, Major General Rauf Nurullin, the acting commander of the Southern group of forces met top law enforcement officials, the Defense Ministry reported.

The officials “discussed issues of coordination between military forces, local authorities and law enforcement organs for maintaining order during the exercise Sea Breeze-2007,” the ministry said in the report. (tl/ez)