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Kiev (AFP) – Russia seized three Ukrainian warships in waters near the annexed Crimea in Moscow, raising fears of military escalation and urging the UN Security Council to hold a meeting on Monday d & # 39; emergency.
In an unprecedented incident, Russia used weapons against Ukrainian ships which, she says, illegally entered its waters before embarking and searching them, confirmed the security service of the FSB of the country.
The crisis unfolded on Sunday as two small Ukrainian warships and a tugboat crossed the Kerch Strait, a narrow waterway giving access to the Azov Sea, used by Ukraine and Russia.
The Ukraine said that a Russian border guardship had struck the tug in "openly aggressive actions", then fired at the ships, immobilizing all three.
He said the Kerch Strait had been blocked by an oil tanker and that Russian military planes were flying over the area.
Confrontation at sea is a dangerous development in the long-standing conflict between Ukraine and Moscow and the Russian-backed rebels in the east of the country.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the escalation, said US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. The meeting was requested by both Russia and Ukraine, diplomatic sources told AFP.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked parliament to vote Monday on the opportunity to impose martial law in the country for 60 days, after his military cabinet had recommended it. in a meeting late at night.
Judging by his weight behind the measure, which is not guaranteed, he said that this "does not mean in any way that Ukraine will carry out offensive actions".
"I want to stress separately that we all have irrefutable evidence that this aggression, this attack on the naval warships of the Ukrainian Navy was not a mistake, not an accident, but a deliberate action," he said. -he declares.
Ukraine said six of its soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, but the Russian FSB reported that only three had sustained life-threatening injuries and had been treated.
Protesters, some armed with flares, gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev on Sunday night to face the latest developments.
– West calls for restraint –
The seizure triggered an alert among Western allies in Kiev.
"We expect Russia that it will restore freedom of passage into the Kerch Strait and urge everyone to act with the utmost restraint in order to defuse the situation immediately," said Lt.-Noel. European Union in a statement.
NATO has also called for "restraint and de-escalation" and Russia "to guarantee unhindered access to the Ukrainian ports of the Azov Sea, in accordance with international law".
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine stated that the "aggressive actions" constituted a violation of international law that would run up against "an international and diplomatic legal response".
Russia claims the waters of Crimea after the annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
"After crossing the Russian border this morning, the three Ukrainian ships – the Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yani Kapu – again tried on November 25 at 19:00 (Moscow time) to engage in illegal actions in territorial waters. Russian, "said the president. FSB said Sunday.
The FSB, which oversees the border guard services, also said that Ukrainian vessels had not responded to the "legal demands" of the Russian authorities.
Russian politicians accused Ukraine of acting at the urging of its Western allies and deliberately trying to escalate the conflict.
The head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, wrote on Facebook that he "was certain that the Western masters of the Kiev regime were at the origin of this act of provocation".
Pyotr Tolstoy, vice-speaker of the Russian parliament, warned on Facebook that "the Ukrainian puppet authorities (…) risk triggering an important military conflict".
"One thing is clear: Russia will not allow military provocations in its territorial waters".
– Increased Russian controls –
The Ukraine said that she had warned Russia of the road to its ships, which her ships are forced to take to reach the sea of Azov.
In September, the Ukrainian Navy complained of "acts of provocation" by Russian border guards against its ships taking the same route.
Ukraine has increased the number of naval vessels and patrols of border guards in the Azov Sea after Russia's deployment of five other warships.
Kiev says its shipbuilding is due to the intensification of Russia's controls in the region this year and to lengthy commercial shipping checks that were very costly for freight companies and ports.
Kiev and the West have accused Moscow of deliberately preventing ships from accessing Mariupol, which enjoys vital access to the region's heavy industry.
Mariupol is close to the eastern region of Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists in a conflict that has claimed at least 10,000 lives since 2014.
The United States, a key ally of Ukraine, oppose the Russian takeover of Crimea and seek to reduce Ukraine's dependence on the Russian gas pipelines.
