Ukraine: Is Russia trying to take another chunk?
Ukraine is under attack, said Boris Sokolov in Den (Ukraine). Russian warships rammed and fired on three of our naval vessels this week as they attempted to sail from the Black Sea port of Odessa through the Kerch Strait—the narrow channel between the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Russian mainland—to Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Officers from Russia’s FSB intelligence agency boarded the vessels and took all 23 crew members captive, six of whom had been injured in the clash. Moscow then temporarily blocked the Kerch Strait by placing a tanker under a new bridge connecting Crimea and mainland Russia, effectively blockading Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities on the Azov coast. Russia claims its actions are justified because the three Ukrainian ships violated Russian waters—a pathetic lie, since a 2004 treaty grants both countries access to the strait and the sea. “Moscow clearly wants to turn the Sea of Azov into a Russian lake,” and it is “spitting on international law” to do so. In response, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has put the military on full combat alert and had the legislature declare martial law for 30 days. Some fear Poroshenko overreacted, said Valery Pekar in Vysokyi Zamok (Ukraine), or even that he intends to use his emergency powers to delay the presidential election he is expected to lose next March. But that’s unlikely. This is, in fact, an emergency: Russia’s goal is nothing less than “the destruction of Ukraine as an independent state.” Four years ago, Russia occupied Crimea and parts of our Donetsk and Luhansk regions using Russian soldiers disguised as volunteer militiamen. This new aggression, though, is breathtakingly blatant, with Russian guns blazing under the Russian flag, right in the open. Maybe we should have seen it coming, said Natalia Balyuk, also in Vysokyi Zamok. Moscow has been trying to cut off our vital trade port of Mariupol, which is surrounded by pro-Russian forces in Donetsk, for months. It has been stopping and searching ships, causing delays and throttling Mariupol’s economy. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided the time is right for a small “victorious war” that might distract Russians from their economic woes. What happens next depends on our allies. Ukraine needs “military and financial assistance,” and the international community must unite behind us in demanding new sanctions on Russia.
Yet “the cohesion of the West has never been in greater doubt,” said The Times (U.K.) in an editorial. While the U.S. did belatedly condemn Russia’s aggression, President Donald Trump himself gave only “an ambivalent statement,” saying, “We don’t like what’s happening, and hopefully it’ll get straightened out.” That’s not sufficient. “It is vital that the West speak loudly and with one voice to insist that Russia give Ukrainian ships unhindered access to Ukrainian ports.” Because if Putin is allowed to continue destabilizing Ukraine, we risk “a wider conflict that could affect the whole continent.”