FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Putin Will Comment on Ukraine Naval Provocation in Next Few Days
Nov. 27, 2018 (EIRNS)—“The President will announce his stance within the next few days,” on the situation over the Ukraine naval incident, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this morning, reports TASS. “It would be wrong to underestimate the significance and danger of such provocations.” When asked why Putin had not commented on the issue yet despite the seriousness of that incident, Peskov noted that
“The President will do so when he deems it necessary. It is a very serious matter for the President. You know that he has received comprehensive information from our border guards and specialized agencies right from the start of this provocation.”
The Kremlin spokesman said, “However, when the time comes, the President will provide all necessary explanations.”
What Putin is not going to do at present, according to Peskov, is talk to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as the U.S. State Department had suggested in its Nov. 26 statements, by saying the two leaders should “engage” together in a solution. Such a meeting, Peskov said, is not necessary as the situation has already calmed down. “In fact, there is no more need to calm the situation,” he said. “It happened the day before yesterday, when our border guards appeased the violators of the Russian state border.”
Putin spoke today by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the situation. The Kremlin readout stated, “Serious concern was expressed over Kiev’s decision to put its armed forces on combat alert and impose martial law.” Further,
“It was pointed out that the Ukrainian authorities bear full responsibility for creating yet another conflict situation and for the attendant risks. All this has been clearly done in the context of the election campaign in Ukraine.”
In Kiev, the Verkhovna Rada (unicameral parliament) did act on the martial law request that Poroshenko had put forward, but limited it to the Ukrainian regions next to Russia, the Black Sea and Moldova, and for a duration of 30 days, not the 60 that the National Security and Defense Council had requested. Peskov warned that imposing martial law risks escalating tension in the Donbas region.
Peskov was asked today specifically about the upcoming G20 summit, and the sidelines meeting between Putin and Trump this weekend, and whether the Ukraine matter would be raised. Peskov said, “This is not a topic for the G20 summit, but at the same time if any issues are raised at bilateral meetings with the President on the sidelines of the summit, no one should doubt that the President will give exhaustive clarifications.”
As for the sailors that were aboard the three Ukrainian vessels taken to Kerch by Russia’s FSB Border Service, they remain in FSB custody and according to reports in TASS, FSB investigators are interrogating them. Russia released video on this yesterday. Both the FSB and the Ukrainian security service, the SBU, confirm that SBU officers were aboard the vessels. The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against them for violating Russia’s state borders.
The Kiev regime’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is claiming that the sailors are prison
ers of war and cannot be put on trial, according to Interfax-Ukraine. “We are currently in talks with the Red Cross because, by status, our guys are prisoners of war. Russia has made several acts of aggression against us, and the Red Cross must actively get involved in this,”
Klimkin said on the “Breakfast with 1+1” TV broadcast, which was aired live this morning, reported Interfax-Ukraine.
