RUSSIA-UKRAINE SPAT CONTINUES
Putin defends ‘lawful’ seizure of three Ukrainian ships
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko signed an act imposing martial law in border regions on Wednesday as mounting tensions over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian ships saw US President Donald Trump threaten to cancel talks with Vladimir Putin.
Poroshenko’s spokesman confirmed he had signed the act, which introduces martial law for 30 days in 10 regions bordering Russia, the Black Sea and the Azov Sea.
Later during the day, Putin shrugged off a threat from Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow’s seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraine’s president of orchestrating the crisis.
Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies.
The episode has raised fears in the West of a wider conlict between the two countries, and Trump said on Tuesday that he might cancel a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week as a response to “aggression.”
Some of Ukraine’s Western allies have also raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode, which could deliver a blow to the Russian economy.
But Putin, in his irst public comments on the Black Sea incident, said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the clash as a minor border issue, and accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of having orchestrated the crisis in order to boost his dire ratings.
Putin said he also still hoped to meet Trump at the G20, while the Kremlin said the meeting was still being prepared and Washington had not informed Moscow it was off.
“It was without doubt a provocation,” Putin told a inancial forum in Moscow of the incident. “It was organised by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in ifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was saddened by what he asserted was Washington’s willingness to encourage Ukraine’s “provocation.”
Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-russian narrative.
MARTIAL LAW
Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion.
Speaking in northern Ukraine, Poroshenko, who has accused Moscow of naked military aggression, talked up his country’s readiness to respond to any future Russian military action.
“It’s important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor,” said Poroshenko, adding that he had received offers from hundreds of Ukrainian war veterans who said they were ready to return and defend the country.
The United States and the EU have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct towards Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula after a pro-russian leader was toppled in Kiev.
Moscow later backed pro-russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conlict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed. Major ighting ended with a 2015 ceasefire but deadly exchanges of ire are still frequent.
A Kremlin aide said on Wednesday that Putin had rebuffed an initiative from Poroshenko for the two men to speak by phone.