The chief of the Ukrainian General Staff has ordered to put the country's armed forces on full combat alert amid Russian-Ukrainian naval tensions near Crimea, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) The chief of the Ukrainian General Staff has ordered to put the country's armed forces on full combat alert amid Russian-Ukrainian naval tensions near Crimea, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"In accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on imposing martial law, the chief of the General Staff and commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces ordered to put the Ukrainian Armed Forces' units on full combat alert," the statement published on Facebook said.
Earlier on Monday, the NSDC decided to impose martial law on the territory of Ukraine for a period of 60 days. The decision is to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament that will gather for an urgent meeting at 14:00 GMT.
On Sunday, three ships of the Ukrainian Navy, in violation of Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, crossed the Russian sea border, entered the temporarily closed area of the Russian territorial waters, and were moving from the Black Sea toward the Kerch Strait, according to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Another group of ships was heading for the Kerch Strait from the Azov Sea port of Berdyans'k.
The FSB later said that the same three ships of the Ukrainian Navy � Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu � had been detained after violating Russian state border. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB noted.
