Ukrainian leader says Putin wants his whole country, asks for NATO help
Thomas Escritt, Andrew Osborn, Reuters, Nov 29 2018
BERLIN/MOSCOW – Pres Poroshenko on Thursday accused Pres Putin of wanting to annex his entire country and called for NATO to deploy warships to a sea shared by the two nations. Poroshenko’s comments to German media were part of a concerted push by Kiev aimed at gaining Western support for more sanctions against Moscow, securing tangible Western military help, and rallying opposition to a Russian gas pipeline that threatens to deprive Ukraine of important transit revenue. His Western allies have so far not offered to give him any of these things soon, despite his warnings of a possible invasion by Russia after Moscow seized three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews on Sunday. Moscow and Kiev blame each other for the Black Sea incident, which took place off Russian-annexed Crimea. Poroshenko told Bild:
Don’t believe Putin’s lies. Putin wants the old Russian empire back. Crimea, Donbass, the whole country. As Russian Tsar, as he sees himself, his empire can not function without Ukraine. He sees us as his colony.
Ukrainian infrastructure minister Vladimir Omelyan on Thursday accused Russia of imposing a de facto blockade on two Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov by barring ships from leaving and entering the sea via the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait. The Kremlin denied it was restricting shipping, saying it had not heard of any problems. If there were any delays they were due to bad weather rather than politics, it said. Poroshenko told Bild he also wanted NATO to deploy warships to the Sea of Azov. There was no immediate reaction from the alliance, which has condemned Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian ships. The Kremlin said Poroshenko’s request looked designed to cause more tensions in the area. There were further signs that Russia was pressing ahead with its plans to fortify Crimea and turn it into what Kremlin-backed media have called a fortress. Russia on Thursday deployed a fourth battalion of S-400s in Crimea. Interfax also reported Russian plans to build a new early warning radar station in Crimea next year, to track ballistic and cruise missiles long-distance. Russia was also working on a new technical system to allow it to better track shipping around the peninsula in order to protect its maritime borders, Interfax said. Pindostan & Eurostan have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct towards Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Crimea. Major fighting against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine ended with a 2015 ceasefire, but deadly exchanges of fire are still frequent. Poroshenko, whom Putin has accused of manufacturing the Black Sea crisis to boost his flagging ratings before an election next year, called on Germany to halt an undersea pipeline project that would allow Russia to supply more gas to Germany directly. Poroshenko told Funke:
We need a strong, resolute and clear reaction to Russia’s aggressive behavior. That also means stopping the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
But German economy minister Peter Altmaier dismissed the idea that his country’s commitment to the pipeline undermined efforts to deescalate the Ukraine crisis, telling ARD public broadcaster:
These are two separate questions.
Poroshenko’s attempts to get the EU to impose new sanctions on Russia appeared to be falling flat. Heeding his suggestion, the EU’s hawks have called for more sanctions but the divided bloc is not going to act swiftly, if at all, diplomatic sources have said. Angela Merkel said she would raise the Black Sea issue with Putin at a G20 summit which starts in Argentina on Friday. He is also due to hold talks with Trump. NATO has urged Russia to release the three Ukrainian navy ships and their crews, saying there was no justification for Moscow’s actions, but has stopped short of offering to deploy new forces in the area to deter Russia.
Putin defiant on Ukraine crisis despite Trump summit talks threat
Andrew Osborn, Anton Zverev, Reuters, Nov 29 2018
MOSCOW/KERCH – Pres Putin on Wednesday shrugged off a threat from Pres Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow’s seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, and accused Ukraine’s president of orchestrating the crisis. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies. Trump said on Tuesday that he might cancel a planned meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Argentina later this week as a response to what he called Russia’s aggression. Other NATO vassals have raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Russia over the episode. Putin said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, dismissed the clash as a minor border issue, and accused Pres Poroshenko of having orchestrated the crisis in order to boost his dire ratings. Putin said he also still hoped to meet Trump at the G20, while the Kremlin said the meeting was still being prepared and Faschingstein had not informed Moscow it was off. Putin told a financial forum in Moscow of the incident:
It was without doubt a provocation. It was organized by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law.
Sergei Lavrov said he was saddened by what he asserted was Faschingstein’s willingness to encourage Ukraine’s provocation. Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative. Trump has been briefed on the situation as he considers whether to cancel the Putin meeting but no decision has been made, White House officials said on Wednesday. Mad Dog Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon:
Russia’s action shows it cannot be counted on to keep its word. It was obviously a flagrant violation of international law. It was, I think, a cavalier use of a force that injured Ukrainian sailors.
Kiev has introduced martial law in parts of the country, saying it fears a possible Russian invasion. Speaking in northern Ukraine, Poroshenko, who has accused Moscow of naked military aggression, talked up his country’s readiness to respond to any future Russian military action, saying:
It’s important to keep our powder dry and be ready at any moment to push back the aggressor. I have received offers from hundreds of Ukrainian war veterans who said they were ready to return and defend the country.
Pindostan & Eurostan have both imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct toward Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Major fighting against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine ended with a 2015 ceasefire, but deadly exchanges of fire are still frequent. A Kremlin aide said on Wednesday that Putin had rebuffed an initiative from Poroshenko for the two men to speak by phone. Vadim Astafyev, a spox for the southern military district, was cited by Russian news agencies as saying that a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by year’s end. The deployment is likely to have been long-planned, but the timing of the announcement appeared designed to send a message to Ukraine and the West that Russia is serious about defending what it regards as its own territory and waters. Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems which have a range of up to 400 km (250 miles) allowing Russia to control large swaths of the skies above the Black Sea. The new missile deployment to Crimea would allow Russia to increase its air defense coverage area. Separately, a Reuters correspondent in Crimea on Wednesday observed a Russian navy minesweeper ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin, heading in the direction of the Sea of Azov. The sea is home to major ports of both Russia and Ukraine, and can be reached only through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait near where Sunday’s incident took place. A court in Crimea’s capital Simferopol on Wednesday ordered nine of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors – including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency – held for a period of two months. The same court ordered the other 15 sailors on Tuesday to be detained for two months pending a possible trial. All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the strait without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop. Ukraine said its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait without Russian permission.
Merkel: We sanction Russia for the sake of international law
Reuters, Nov 29 2018
BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the West was imposing sanctions on Russia to stand up for international law and added that she would address the Sea of Azov issue with Pres Putin at an upcoming G20 summit. She told a Germany-Ukraine conference in Berlin:
We don’t impose sanctions on Russia for sanctions’ sake, rather we impose sanctions to make clear that countries, even if their territorial situation puts them close to Russia, have the right to their own development. Those are the principles of international law.
The EU’s hawks have called for more sanctions on Russia after a fresh flare-up of tensions with Ukraine, but the divided bloc is not going to act swiftly, if at all, diplomatic sources have said.
Germany prepared to keep providing aid for the Donbass
Reuters, Nov 29 2018
BERLIN – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday that Germany was prepared to continue providing aid to the peopleof the Donbass region of Ukraine. He said:
They also need aid, medicines, food and clean drinking water and Germany is prepared to continue to support this.
Niqnaq 