Ukraine president demands release of sailors
MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s president is demanding that Russia immediately release Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in a standoff in the Black Sea.
Petro Poroshenko said at a meeting of Ukraine’s national security council yesterday that “we demand that they are urgently turned over to the Ukrainian side” and called for a “de-escalation” of the crisis around Crimea.
The Ukrainian parliament is set to consider a presidential request for the introduction of martial law, following the standoff.
Ukraine’s navy said six Ukrainian seamen were wounded when Russian coast guards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait and then seized them late Sunday. The two nations traded blame over the incident. It aggravated tensions that have soared since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
NATO is calling on Russia and Ukraine to show restraint after the Russian coastguard fired on Ukrainian navy vessels, wounding six seamen.
Ukraine says the ships were respecting international maritime rules as they headed to the Sea of Azov. Russia says they failed to obtain permission to pass through the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from the Russian mainland. Tensions between NATO and Russia have escalated since 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said “we call for restraint and de-escalation.”
She said NATO supports Ukraine’s “navigational rights in its territorial waters” and calls on Russia “to ensure unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law.”