At OSCE Meeting, Ukraine Pleads For Ramped-Up Russia Sanctions
By RFE/RL
Ukraine has used a gathering of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to call for increased sanctions against Russia, accusing Moscow of stepping up “aggression” against Kyiv and sowing "instability and insecurity" in the OSCE region.
"It is a matter of urgency to provide a prompt and consolidated international response,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the OSCE meeting in Milan, Italy, on December 6, amid heightened tensions between Kyiv and Moscow following a naval confrontation in the Black Sea last month.
"Declarations are not enough. There must be action," Klimkin also said, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pinned the blame for years of tensions on Ukraine's "outrageous actions" and its "Western sponsors."
Russia on November 25 fired on three Ukrainian naval vessels that were attempting to pass through the Kerch Strait between Russia and Crimea, and ultimately seized the ships and 24 crewmen, who remain in Russian captivity.
The European Union, the United States, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia over Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 and its support for separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
In his speech at the OSCE ministerial meeting, Klimkin said, "This year, Russia did not pull back but extended its aggressive course of action."
"The scope of Russia is clear: gross and uncorrected violations of the OSCE principles and commitments. It is massive and continues to grow," he also said. "What does it mean for all of us in the OSCE? It means instability and insecurity."
Ukraine and Russia are both member states of the 57-nation OSCE, a security and human rights watchdog.
The minister reiterated his country’s call for the "immediate release and safe return to Ukraine" of the sailors, a demand voiced by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who also urged the "greatest moderation to proceed toward a deescalation" of the conflict.
Meanwhile, U.S., Canadian, and a number of European ministers denounced Moscow’s actions and voiced support for Kyiv.
"Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, its direct involvement in the conflict in [eastern Ukraine], and now its illegal actions targeting Ukrainian sailors and vessels...cannot and must not be accepted by the international community," said Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Moscow has accused Kyiv of orchestrating the clash at sea, saying the Ukrainian boats had entered Russian waters -- something Kyiv denies.
Addressing the OSCE gathering, Lavrov asserted that Kyiv is “free from any punishment, shielded by its Western sponsors, who justify all its outrageous actions."
"Striving for dominance, a small group of countries uses blackmail, pressure, and threats," the Russian foreign minister also said.
Lavrov blasted the “reckless” enlargement of NATO over the past years, the deployment of U.S. antiaircraft defense systems in Europe, and the imposition of “illegitimate sanctions under false pretexts."
Ukraine has responded to the November 25 confrontation by introducing martial law in parts of the country for 30 days.
On December 6, President Petro Poroshenko visited an air base in the city of Zhytomyr where troops were preparing to leave for the border with Russia in order to “strengthen our defense capabilities and be ready to stop the aggressor without losing a second."
In Kyiv, Ukrainian lawmakers voted to terminate the country's Treaty of Friendship with Russia and adopted a bill that officials said will allow the coast guard and the navy to be more efficient in preventing military threats and smuggling along country’s territorial waters.
The legislation also allows Ukrainian border guards to open fire without warning on potential attackers.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and dpa
U.S. Conducts 'Extraordinary' Observation Flight Over Ukraine
By RFE/RL
The United States says it has carried out an "extraordinary" flight over Ukraine under an international military surveillance treaty, amid what it called a pattern of “increasingly provocative and threatening activity" by Russia.
The Pentagon said the flight took place on December 6, with tensions soaring between Ukraine and Russia following a naval confrontation last month.
CNN has reported that the United States is also making plans to sail a warship into the Black Sea, but that has not been confirmed.
Ukrainian government forces have been fighting against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, shortly after Russia military forces seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and illegally annexed the territory.
Tensions between Kyiv and Moscow escalated on November 25, when Russia fired on Ukrainian naval vessels that were attempting to pass under a massive bridge that spans the Kerch Strait and links Russia with Crimea.
Russia ultimately seized three Ukrainian ships and 24 crewmen, who remain in Russian captivity despite international calls to free them.
“Today, the United States and allies conducted an extraordinary flight” under the Open Skies Treaty to “reaffirm U.S. commitment to Ukraine and other partner nations,” the Defense Department said in a statement.
Since 2002, the Open Skies Treaty has allowed 34 signatory states to send unarmed observation flights over one another's territory.
These flights are usually scheduled well in advance, but the treaty allows "extraordinary," or unscheduled flights, if two participating members agree -- in this case Ukraine and the United States.
Russia's “unprovoked attack” on Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea is “a dangerous escalation in a pattern of increasingly provocative and threatening activity,” the Pentagon also said.
It added that the United States “seeks a better relationship with Russia, but this cannot happen while its unlawful and destabilizing actions continue in Ukraine and elsewhere.”
U.S. surveillance planes and drones regularly skirt Russia's Black Sea coastline, as well as that of Crimea. Russian jets have been shown regularly confronting, and shadowing, the surveillance planes.
CNN reported on December 5 that U.S. military officials have asked the State Department to notify Turkey of possible plans for a Navy ship to pass through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the waterway that connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
The channel cited three unnamed U.S. officials as the source for the report, which could not be immediately confirmed.
A decades-old treaty requires that all countries that do not have a Black Sea coastline give Turkey 15-days notice when their warships plan to transit the waterway.
Two of the unnamed officials told CNN that the plans weren't set in stone, and that the notification was merely to provide the Navy with the option to move a warship into the area.
"We routinely conduct operations to advance security and stability throughout the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to include the international waters and airspace of the Black Sea," said Commander Kyle Raines, a spokesman for the U.S. Sixth Fleet, which oversees naval operations in the region.
"We reserve the right to operate freely in accordance with international laws and norms," he added.
Konstantin Kosachev, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said the U.S. military presence in the Black Sea will only increase tension in the region, according to the TASS news agency.
Viktor Bondarev, the chairman of the Federation Council’s committee on defense and security, called the possible deployment of U.S. Navy ships in the Black Sea as “yet another episode of saber rattling, yet another ploy to humiliate Russia," TASS reported.
NATO, which includes several Black Sea member states, and the United States have routinely sent warships patrolling the Black Sea, despite Russian concerns.
After the five-day Russia-Georgia war in 2008, with Russian forces still encamped on shore nearby, Washington anchored the flagship for the U.S. Sixth Fleet -- the USS Mount Whitney -- off Georgia's coast in a sign of support for the country.
Under a 2003 treaty, Russia and Ukraine agreed to share access to the Sea of Azov. However, since the 2014 annexation, and the completion of the Kerch bridge earlier this year, Russia has slowly restricted access for Ukrainian ships.
According to CNN, the last U.S. ship to enter the Black Sea was the fast transport ship USNS Carson City in October.
With reporting by CNN, AP, and TASS
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Another item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukraine's Parliament Approves Bill To Terminate Friendship Treaty With Russia
KYIV -- Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved a move by President Petro Poroshenko to terminate the country's Treaty of Friendship with Russia.
On December 6, 277 lawmakers voted to terminate the treaty by allowing it to expire. Passage of the bill required only 226 votes.
The treaty is due to expire on March 31, 2019. Under the Ukrainian legislation, it will not be prolonged after that date.
Signed in 1997, the treaty obliges Russia and Ukraine to "respect the territorial integrity of each other and confirm inviolability of current mutual borders."
It also says that Ukraine and Russia should build bilateral relations "based on principles of mutual respect of sovereign equality, inviolability of borders, peaceful resolution of differences, without use of force or threat to use force."
Ukrainian government forces have been fighting against Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Ukraine since April 2014, shortly after Russia military forces seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and annexed the territory.
Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine's domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 ruled that the fighting in eastern Ukraine is "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."