The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed on Monday concern over how the situation in the Sea of Azov was developing and urged that Ukrainian ships be granted the freedom to pass through the Kerch Strait
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed on Monday concern over how the situation in the Sea of Azov was developing and urged that Ukrainian ships be granted the freedom to pass through the Kerch Strait.
On Sunday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported three ships of the Ukrainian Navy � Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu � had been detained after illegally crossing Russia's state border. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them and made dangerous maneuvers, the FSB noted. Another group of ships was heading for the Kerch Strait from the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk.
"We are following the developments and rising tensions in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. We are concerned to learn that Ukrainian Navy ships were fired at and that there were injured people there. We stress the need to provide freedom of passage for the Black Sea region country's ships through the Kerch Strait," the ministry said in the statement.
According to the statement, Ankara also called for international law to be respected, and for measures that could threaten peace and stability in the region to be avoided.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) earlier on Monday decided to impose martial law on the territory of Ukraine for a period of 60 days. The chief of the Ukrainian General Staff has ordered to put the country's armed forces on full combat alert.
