<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">South Africa is starting a joint military exercise with Russia and China that some countries say it amounts to an endorsement of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The US has also criticised the 10-day naval drills, which will continue over the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">But South Africa's government says it remains neutral regarding the conflict, and that it routinely hosts similar drills with other countries, including France and the US.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Mosi II naval exercises are taking place in the Indian Ocean, off the South African coast. The South African National Defence Force says 350 members of its armed forces will take part.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Russia has announced it will send its Admiral Gorshkov warship, which carries Zircon hypersonic missiles. These fly at nine times the speed of sound and have a range of 1,000 km (620 miles).</span></p>