MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st December, 2018) Russia's actions in the Kerch Strait incident show a brotherly attitude to Ukraine because the Ukrainian vessels were not destroyed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday.
"No country in the world would run after these madmen within its territorial waters ... to stop them, including risking own lives, would send there so many people ... No country, only us ... Only brotherly people will try for a few hours to call to some voice of reason, and do it on their own," Zakharova said in a program shown on the Rossiya 1 channel.
She noted that if it were the United States, South Korea, Japan, Canada, or Australia in place of Russia, "there'd be nothing left of those boats."
According to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat on Sunday sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the only entrance to the Sea of Azov, where the ships were seized by Russia after failing to respond to lawful demands to stop. The FSB also said that these provocations were coordinated by two Ukrainian Security Service officers who were on the vessels.
In response to the situation in the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian authorities have introduced martial law in select regions of Ukraine along the border with Russia as well as the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov for 30 days.
