Ukraine tells Russia to release vessels
Tensions mount after confrontation, Canada condemns ‘aggression’
KIEV, UKRAINE— Ukraine’s parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in parts of the country to fight what its president called “growing aggression” from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbours.
Western leaders and diplomats urged both sides to deescalate the conflict, and the U.S. blamed Russia for what it called “unlawful conduct” over Sunday’s incident in the Black Sea.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland condemned Russia for what she called “aggression” against Ukraine and vowed that Canada would remain “unwavering in its support” for Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in the dispute that further ratcheted up tensions that have existed ever since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine with clandestine support, including troops and weapons.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers in Kyiv to institute martial law, something the country did not do even during the worst of the fighting in the east that killed about 10,000 people.
After a five-hour debate, parliament overwhelmingly approved his proposal, voting to impose martial law for 30 days starting Wednesday morning in 10 of Ukraine’s 27 regions — those bordering Russia, Belarus and Moldova’s pro-Moscow breakaway republic of TransDniester.
The locations chosen were ones that Poroshenko identified as potentially in the front line of any Russian attack. The capital of Kyiv is not under martial law.
Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about “a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine.” He did not elaborate.
“Martial law doesn’t mean declaring a war,” he said. “It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraine’s defence in the light of a growing aggression from Russia.”
The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening of air defences. It also contained vaguely worded steps such as “strengthening” anti-terrorism measures and “information security” that could curtail certain rights and freedoms. But Poroshenko also pledged to re- spect the rights of Ukrainian citizens.
His critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sunday’s incident merited such a response. Poroshenko’s approval ratings have been plunging, and there were concerns that he would postpone a presidential election scheduled for March.
Just before the parliament met to vote, Poroshenko sought to allay those fears by releasing astatement revising his original martial law proposal from 60 days to just 30 days. Oksana Syroid, a deputy speaker of parliament, noted that martial law was not introduced in 2014 or 2015 despite large-scale fighting in the east. A state of emergency “would present a wonderful chance to manipulate the presidential elections,” she said. NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg said Poroshenko assured him that martial law would not have a negative impact on the election.
At a UN Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged Russia to “immediately cease its unlawful conduct” in the Black Sea.
Russia called Ukraine’s actions “dangerous.” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council the incident was another example of Ukrainian leaders trying to provoke Russia for political purposes. The European Union and NATO called for restraint from both sides. NATO said Stoltenberg expressed the U.S.-led military alliance’s “full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke by telephone with Poroshenko to express her concerns and emphasize the need for de-escalation and dialogue, her office said. British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman, James Slack, said the incident was “further evidence of Russia’s destabilizing behaviour in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity.”