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Ukraine Would Send the Fleet to Syria
Konstantin Rzhepishevsky, head the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry office is Odessa Region, stated on June 26 that the Russian Black Sea Fleet may be transferred from Sevastopol to Syria after 2017, the UNIAN information service reports. Rzhepishevsky said that the Russian side has already spoken in favor of that idea and added that the Black Sea “will soon become a good zone of peace and economic cooperation.”
Under international agreement, the Black Sea Fleet is supposed to leave Ukraine by 2017. Official Kiev has repeatedly stated that it will not extend the agreement on the Russian division’s location in Sevastopol. Russian politicians have also repeatedly said that the fleet will stay in Ukraine forever. The Russian Foreign Ministry declines to discuss the issue, saying that it is “not timely.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, commenting recently on a rent increase for the fleet at Sevastopol (it currently pays about $98 million per year), said that the withdrawal of the fleet in 2017 is nonnegotiable.
Chief of the Russian Navy Vladimir Vysotsky stated recently that, after 2017, the fleet may be transferred to the Mediterranean Sea area. Leonid Ivashov, president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, was quoted by RBC Daily as saying that the port of Tartus in Syria may be the new home for the fleet. There is a Russian naval logistics facility in Tartus now.
www.kommersant.com
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