Nato to meet Ukraine over Russia stand-off
Nato foreign ministers will address the standoff between Ukraine and Russia in the Sea of Azov at a meeting next week with their Ukrainian counterpart, the alliance said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has urged the western allies to deploy naval vessels to the Sea of Azov after Russian forces fired on and seized three Ukrainian boats in waters off Crimea on Sunday.
Western leaders have denounced the Russian act, demanded Moscow return the boats and crews and restated their rejection of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, but they are wary of escalating the latest incident.
This comes as Russia on Thursday also deployed a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in Crimea, its fourth such battalion, the Tass news agency reported.
But the crisis will take centre stage next week, when the foreign ministers of the 29member Atlantic Alliance hold its own regular meeting – and meet Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin.
“The Nato-Ukraine Commission met this week to discuss developments near the Sea of Azov, and Nato foreign ministers will meet with Ukrainian foreign minister Klimkin next week,” spokesperson Oana Lungescu said.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, who will host next week’s meeting on Monday
Western leaders have demanded Moscow return the boats and crews
and Tuesday at Nato’s Brussels headquarters, spoke to Poroshenko on Monday.
The alliance has not directly addressed Poroshenko’s request for naval assistance in the already tense waters off Crimea, but the spokesperson said Nato was already present in force in the wider region.
“Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Nato has substantially increased its presence in the Black Sea,” Lungescu said.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday there was no military solution to the Ukraine conflict after Poroshenko had asked for Nato naval support in his country’s standoff with Russia.
Blaming Russia for the tensions, Merkel said: “We ask the Ukrainian side too to be sensible because we know that we can only solve things through being reasonable and through dialogue because there is no military solution to these disputes.”
Merkel, speaking at a German-Ukrainian business forum, said she would discuss the conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in Argentina this weekend.
Putin has insisted that Russian forces were in the right to seize the Ukrainian ships, but President Donald Trump expressed “deep concern” at Moscow’s actions against a US ally.
In his first extensive remarks since the confrontation at sea on Sunday, Putin said it had been orchestrated by Kiev as a “provocation”.
He said the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters and refused to respond to requests to stop from Russian patrol boats.
Trump on Tuesday threatened to cancel planned talks with Putin at the G20 summit over the incident. –