Ukraine bars Russian males, upping ante in growing conflict
KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian officials on Friday upped the ante in their nation’s growing confrontation with Russia, announcing a travel ban for most Russian men and searching the home of an influential cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The long-simmering conflict bubbled over Sunday, when Russian border guards rammed opened fire on three Ukrainian boats near the Crimean Peninsula. The Russians then seized the ships and have detained their 24 crew members. In response, the Ukrainian parliament on Monday passed the president’s motion to impose martial law in all border areas for 30 days.
Ukraine says they were in international waters. The Kerch Strait is sensitive area for Russia, since it just built a long bridge from the mainland to occupied Crimea there.
Petro Tsygykal, chief of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, announced Friday at a security meeting that all Russian males between 16 and 60 will be barred from travelling to the country while martial law is in place. President Petro Poroshenko said the measures were taken “to prevent the Russian Federation from forming private armies” on Ukrainian soil.
The announcement follows Thursday’s decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap his much-anticipated meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Trump said it wasn’t appropriate since Russia hasn’t released the Ukrainian seamen.
Meanwhile, another serious confrontation is heating up between Ukraine and Russia over the Orthodox Church. Ukraine’s intelligence agency announced it was investigating a senior cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church and its agents on Friday searched the home of Father Pavlo, who leads the Pechersk Monastery in Kyiv. The agency said he was suspected of “inciting hatred,” accusations he vehemently denied.
The Ukrainian church and the Russian Orthodox Church have been united for centuries, but the Ukrainian church is moving close to separating, a momentous step that would split the world’s largest Eastern Orthodox denomination. Both the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian authorities are strongly against the move and have warned Ukraine not to do it, fearing sectarian violence.