Troubled waters off Crimea

THE European Union has warned tensions between Russia and Ukraine have reached dangerous levels after Russia’s coast guard seized three Ukrainian naval ships near Moscow-annexed Crimea.

Ukraine’s navy claimed Russians opened fire and rammed its ships in the Black Sea.

In an unprecedented move, Russia confirmed it had used weapons before seizing the vessels “in order to stop the Ukrainian military ships”.

Russia confirmed “three Ukrainian navy ships were boarded and searched” on Sunday and its Federal Security Service quickly accused Ukraine of provoking the heavy handed response.

The tense standoff happened as two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tug boat sailed off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula.

Ukraine said six soldiers were injured in the attack but the FSB argued this, saying only three had suffered nonlife threatening injuries and were given medical treatment.

Ukraine’s navy said a Rus- sian border guard vessel rammed the tugboat in “openly aggressive actions” then fired on the two ships, immobilising all three.

Kiev claimed all three vessels had been sailing from the Black Sea Port of Odessa to the Port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, travelling via the Kerch Strait. It was also claimed the Russians had been given advanced notice of the ships’ route.

“Russian coast guard vessels … carried out openly aggressive actions against Ukrainian navy ships,” a Ukrainian navy statement said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko immediately called a meeting with his top military and security chiefs to discuss the situation.

During the meeting he asked parliament to vote on whether to impose martial law on the country for 60 days, saying it “in no way means that Ukraine will carry out any offensive actions”.

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today.