Sevastopol is on the southern part of the Crimean peninsula (top center of the Black Sea).
Posted on 08/13/2008 8:29:59 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Ukraine threatened to blockade the Russian Black Sea Fleet yesterday in an act of solidarity with Georgia that risked escalating the conflict.
After flying to Tbilisi to assure Georgians of his country’s support, President Yushchenko signed an order imposing tough restrictions on the Russian fleet, which is based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. Mr Yushchenko’s decree instructs Russia to give 72 hours’ notice of any movement of ships, aircraft or personnel in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities were given the power to alter those plans.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had already warned Russia that it will bar ships from returning to Sevastopol if they take part in military action against Georgia. Moscow responded furiously, accusing Ukraine of a “serious new antiRussian step”.
Like Georgia, Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership is seeking membership of Nato in December. The democratic Orange Revolution that swept Mr Yushchenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister, to power in 2004 has long been loathed by Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister.
The Ukrainian Security Council issued a statement yesterday declaring that the presence of foreign warships in its waters “poses a potential threat to Ukraine’s national security, particularly if parts of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet are used against third countries”.
Russia and Ukraine are already at loggerheads over the future of the Crimean base, which Russia must vacate in 2017 under a 20-year lease agreement signed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of Crimea’s population consider themselves to be Russians and are strongly pro-Moscow. Tensions have mounted over calls by politicians in Moscow not to surrender control of the territory, regardless of Ukraine’s wishes. Mr Yushchenko insists that the Black Sea Fleet must leave on time and that there is no prospect of extending the lease.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
This whole thing is not looking good.
The former Russian poodles grew teeth. Beating a dog makes it mean as hell. Russia miscalculated the hate their former poodles have for their former cruel master.
A whole pack of them....
This Russian - Georgia war situation is really starting to
heat up.
They got a taste of the free world and they want none of their old kennel.
Hundreds of stinger and javelin missiles need to be shipped to Ukraine NO2 (or better yet last week), and squadrons of F-18s and A-10s need to be staged out of Ukrainian airbases NOW (or again, better yet last week).
Ukraine is right, if country is attacking country B from Country C’s territory, then Country C is forced to react.
Riiight. So we can start WWIII by Friday? I don’t think so. Cool heads please.
South Ossetia = Sudetenland
I think it is more than that taste of freedom. There is payback.
Russia went all in with a bad hand.
The poodles have become pit bulls.
Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland all have PM/Pres in Tbilisi.
Russia will back down very soon IMHO.
The oligarchs sucking on the petro-teat will reign Putin in.
What other shoes will drop? Ideas?
Looks like Ukraine was smart to invite the Tatars to return to the Crimea back in the 90’s.
Regime change in Russia?
;-)
I disagree with him too but the whole “Why not pick up a rifle and lead the way, tough guy?” really pisses me off. All citizens of the Republic are allowed to hold an opinion and to voice it. Shame on you! Does a representative Republic mean anything to you?
I have an aunt who's family fled from Ukraine during Stalin's genocide there. They told me stories of starvation, torture and cannibalism that would curl your hair.
Payback's a bitch, huh Vladimir?
Russia has no idea how much they are hated by their former colonial conquests.
Major miscalculation IMHO.
Russia concerned over U.S.-Ukraine Black Sea military exercises
Published on 18-07-2008 Email To Friend Print Version
Source: RIA Novosti
Russia’s Foreign Ministry voiced on Friday its concerns over the U.S.-Ukrainian Sea Breeze naval exercises currently underway in the Black Sea.
“The nature of the exercises, and attempts to present them as anti-Russian, as well as the involvement of countries from outside the region cannot but provoke certain questions and certain concerns. Why was the Black Sea basin chosen for the drills?” the ministry said on its website, describing the purpose of the exercises as “questionable.”
The Russian ministry said Black Sea countries can independently, without outside interference, solve Black Sea security and stability issues.
The ministry also said that the current military exercises had been met by protests from the local population, and that the demonstrations reflected Ukrainian public opinion in relation to the current Ukrainian administration’s policy of seeking membership of NATO. The statement also said that this policy did nothing to improve relations with Moscow.
Sea Breeze 2008, a NATO military exercise, began on Monday in Ukraine’s Odessa, Crimea and Black Sea coastal regions. Two years ago, the Sea Breeze 2006 exercise in the Crimea was disrupted by protests.
Ukraine and the United States are joined by 15 other countries for this year’s exercises, which are due to end on July 26. Fifteen Ukrainian ships, four aircraft, 10 helicopters, and 500 service personnel are involved in the military exercises.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Supreme Rada, approved NATO participation in the exercises in April. In total, more than 1,000 NATO troops, 15 ships, two submarines, and eight aircraft are expected to take part.
In May and June, several Ukrainian left-wing politicians announced that they would organize mass protests to disrupt the drills. Last Thursday, some 20 opposition activists set up an encampment in western Crimea, intending to picket the exercise.
A branch of the Ukrainian Communist Party in Donetsk said over 1,000 people took part in anti-NATO rallies in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Progressive Socialist Party said on Wednesday that authorities in Ukraine’s Odessa region had banned broadcasts by Russian television channels over their coverage of the Sea Breeze 2008 exercise and the accompanying protests.
Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership has been pursuing NATO membership since 2004, when President Viktor Yushchenko came to power. Ukraine failed to secure a place in the NATO Membership Action Plan, a key step toward joining the alliance, at a NATO summit in April, but was told the decision would be reviewed in December.
A poll conducted in April by the FOM-Ukraina pollster indicated that a majority of Ukrainians oppose NATO membership.
Ukrainian Progressive Socialist Party
Wing of the DNC?
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