Ukraine to Defend Georgia against Russia’s Blockade
// Kiev threatens to ban Russian Black Sea Fleet from getting back to the Ukrainian base
Ukraine is practically the only CIS country to openly back Georgia demanding that Russia immediately withdraw its troops from the territory of Georgia. Yesterday Kiev threatened to block the returning of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to Sevastopol in case the ships take part in a sea blockade of Georgia.
After the full-scale hostilities were unleashed, Ukraine was one of the first states to support Tbilisi officially. Friday, the Ukrainian Foreign Office issued a press-release, where “expressing its deep concern with the situation the conflict zone”, it virtually put the blame on Russia for unleashing the war and urged an immediate withdrawal of Russia’s troops from the territory of Georgia. “Unfortunately, the information we get from the battle arena proves that the Russian Federation, which played a mediatory role for a long time in the conflict settlement, is turning into its party,” the statement reads.
Ukraine’s President Victor Yushchenko sent the country’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Ogryzko to Tbilisi, where he’ll “discuss with the Georgian authorities concrete measures to stop the military confrontation”. More to the point, Mr Yushchenko ordered that the government “provide humanitarian aid to Georgia”.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry responded with a stern tirade accusing Kiev of being privy to the war. “The state of Ukraine, which has been supplying weaponry to Georgia so that it got armed to the teeth, and with that, directly encouraging the Georgian authorities to start the intervention and ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia, has no moral right to tutor others and seek to participate in the settlement,” the statement says. Meanwhile, Russia’s media reported that the Tupolev Tu-22 bomber was shot down over Georgia with the S-200 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, which had been allegedly supplied by Ukraine. “We know that Kiev sold several AMD systems to Tbilisi. Among those, there could be the S-200 systems,” the source stressed.
Curiously, ahead of the war Tskhinvali accused Kiev of selling arms to Georgia. South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoity said that Ukraine sold T-72 tanks, Mil Mi-8 helicopters, APCs (armored personnel carriers), missiles and other weapons to Georgia. The day before the war started Ukraine’s Defense and Foreign Ministries confirmed weapons supplies emphasizing that they were made in full accordance with international norms.
The Ukrainian opposition disagreed, however. Petro Symonenko, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, required that a criminal case be opened in connection with the Ukrainian weaponry supplies to the “fledgling from the U.S. eagle’s nest”, and those from the Party of the Regions promised to set up an ad hoc commission in the Rada, which will investigate the supplies.
Yesterday the diplomatic confrontation of Moscow and Kiev reached its peak after the first reports about Russia’s Black Sea Fleet ships moving in the Georgian direction. The Ukrainian Foreign Office was quick to warn Russia against participating in the conflict using its Black Sea Fleet, and threatened that the ships might not return to the Ukrainian base. In its statement, Kiev points out that Ukraine “has the right, in accordance with the international law and the law of Ukraine, to forbid the ships and vessels that may take part in a conflict to return to the territory of Ukraine till the conflict is resolved”. Answering a question of Kommersant, which measures Ukraine can undertake to prevent Russia’s ships from getting back to Sevastopol, the MFA spokesperson could barely say anything certain. “I can’t tell you anything about the mechanism of the entrance denial,” Vassily Kirilich, the Press-Secretary with Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said.
Russia’s reaction to the demarche of Kiev was predictable. Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karassin rendered Ukraine’s statement regarding the Black Sea Fleet “cynical” underscoring that the Black Sea Fleet will stay in the Crimea whatever “till 2017 in accordance with the existing agreement”.
Interestingly, Ukraine is practically the only CIS country to openly back Georgia. The majority of experts opine that Kiev’s position and the friendship of the Ukrainian and Georgian Presidents can bode ill for the relations between Russia and Ukraine in the long run. “You should take it seriously. Ukraine makes no secret – it can easily side with your opponent,” Alexey Malashenko, Moscow Center Carnegie Expert, told Kommersant.
Grigory Plakhotnikov; Valery Kalnysh, Yelena Geda, Kiev
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 11, 2008
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