Ukraine asks Nato to deploy ships amid row with Russia
Moscow and Kiev high after naval clash Ukraine blame each other for episode to get West to act against Russia and Germany hold back for now berlin/moscow — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday accused Russia’s Vladimir Putin of wanting to annex his entire country and called for Nato to deploy warships to a sea shared by the two nations.
Poroshenko’s comments to German media were part of a concerted push by Kiev aimed at gaining Western support for more sanctions against Moscow, securing tangible Western military help, and rallying opposition to a Russian gas pipeline that threatens to deprive Ukraine of important transit revenue.
His Western allies have so far not offered to give him any of these things soon, despite his warnings of a possible invasion by Russia after Moscow seized three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews on Sunday.
Moscow and Kiev blame each other for the Black Sea incident, which took place off Russian-annexed Crimea.
“Don’t believe Putin’s lies,” Poroshenko told Bild, Germany’s biggest-selling paper, comparing Russia’s protestations of innocence in the affair to Moscow’s 2014 denial that it had soldiers in Crimea even as they moved to annex it.
“Putin wants the old Russian empire back,” he said. “Crimea, Donbass, the whole country. As Russian Tsar, as he sees himself, his empire can not function without Ukraine. He sees us as his colony.”
Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, on Thursday accused Russia of imposing a de facto blockade on two Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov by barring
Crimea, Donbass, the whole country. As Russian Tsar, as he sees himself, his empire can not function without Ukraine. He sees us as his colony.”
Petro Poroshenko, Ukrain President
ships from leaving and entering the sea via the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait.
The Kremlin denied it was restricting shipping, saying it had not heard of any problems. If there were any delays they were due to bad weather rather than politics, it said.
Poroshenko told Bild he also wanted Nato to deploy warships to the Sea of Azov. There was no immediate reaction from the alliance, which has condemned Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian ships. The Kremlin said Poroshenko’s request looked designed to cause more tensions in the area. There were further signs that Russia was pressing ahead with its plans to fortify Crimea and turn it into what Kremlin-backed media have called a fortress.
Russia on Thursday deployed a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems in Crimea, its fourth such, Tass news agency cited a spokesman for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet as saying.
Citing a Crimean security source, Interfax news agency also reported Russian plans to build a new missile early-warning radar station in Crimea next year that would be able to track ballistic and cruise missiles from a long distance. —