Kiev's provocation in the Kerch Strait would have been impossible without US and EU approval, Russian Permanent Representative to OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Sputnik on Thursday.
VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2018) Kiev's provocation in the Kerch Strait would have been impossible without US and EU approval, Russian Permanent Representative to OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Sputnik on Thursday."We are dealing with a thoroughly elaborated and well planned in terms of place and form provocation. It would have been impossible without an approval by the United States and certain countries from the European Union, which play along the confrontational direction of the Ukrainian authorities. Those who gave this illegal order are responsible for this incident," Lukashevich said.
He noted that Kiev knew about the regulations for ships, including military ships, related to the crossing of the Kerch Strait, and followed these regulations up until recently.
"In particular, on September 23 two Ukrainian military ships, that were also coming from Odessa and Berdyansk, with the help of the Russian marine pilots sailed under the Crimean Bridge to the port of the destination unhampered," Lukashevich added.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained 24 crew members after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to introduce martial law ahead of Ukraine's upcoming presidential election.
