The provocation in the Kerch Strait is aimed at the artificial escalation of tensions between Moscow and Kiev and is set to be used as pretext to impose new sanctions against Russia, Russian Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.
VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2018) The provocation in the Kerch Strait is aimed at the artificial escalation of tensions between Moscow and Kiev and is set to be used as pretext to impose new sanctions against Russia, Russian Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.On Sunday, the FSB said that 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. The Ukrainian ships did not react to legal demands of the ships accompanying them, made dangerous maneuvers and were detained after violating Russian state borders, according to the FSB.
"The fact that this was a provocation is also evidenced by the records on the internet of the negotiations of sailors ... All of this is aimed at artificially exacerbating the Russian-Ukrainian disagreements, creating new pretexts for unwinding the thesis on the need for new sanctions against Russia, " Lukashevich said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) earlier on Monday imposed 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.
