ODESSA, July 4 – More than 1,000 protesters marched against a joint Ukrainian-NATO exercise in Odessa on Wednesday, a newswire reported, citing an activist of a party that had organized the action.

The party, the Union of Orthodox Christian Citizens of Ukraine, a little-known pro-Russian group, vowed Tuesday to summon up 100,000 protesters between July 4 and July 23 to try to stop the exercise.