The Polish state-run TV channel, TVP Info, covers the Black Sea maritime incident
Several days after the Russia-Ukraine maritime incident south of the Kerch Strait and following a UNSC meeting on the issue, as well as discussions in the EU and NATO, it has become apparent that Russia has legally not done anything questionable.
So, the Washington establishment and its allies have decided that the situation requires some “public diplomacy” by various officials from the US, EU, NATO and fellows from the Atlantic Council to continue the narrative of painting Russia as the aggressor.
Formally, it is becoming more and more apparent that the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko intentionally organized the incident. However, the Ukrainian side appeared to “play their hand” poorly, and now Ukraine and its partners are attempting to salvage the situation by “public diplomacy” and various strong statements, which disregard the legal side of the issue and entirely focus on a political campaign on the media.
The campaign is rather obvious, especially judging by preemptive reports by the Atlantic Council, the meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klikim and the Mission Essential job posting. It planned to present the Russian side in an aggressive manner, however the Russian soldiers “failed” to sink the Ukrainian ships, in addition to “failing” to kill any of the 19-year-old sailors and the SBU intelligence officers on board.
Overall, the EU and NATO reacted coolly to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s calls for new movies to combat “Russian aggression.”
On November 29th, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said that the military alliance already has a strong presence in the Black Sea region where the incident occurred, and it has no plans to send warships into the Sea of Azov. She further said that NATO ships routinely patrol and conduct exercises in the Black Sea, with NATO ships already present in the region for 120 days this year as compared with 80 days last year.
“There is already a lot of NATO in the Black Sea, and we will continue to assess our presence in the region,” Lungescu said.
On November 27th, NATO released a statement on the issue condemning “Russia’s use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel. We call on Russia to release the Ukrainian sailors and ships it seized, without delay.” The statement also reiterated that support of Ukraine would continue, not specifying how.
So far, the EU is reportedly discussing imposing sanctions on Russia regarding the incident, with Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, among other Eastern European countries are supportive of the idea. Germany and France are strongly opposed to new sanctions. Austria foreign minister Karin Kneissl said the EU would consider sanctions depending “on the exposition of facts and the further conduct of both parties”.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country was ready to back new sanctions. Estonian defence minister Juri Luik called sanctions “probably the most potent way to signal to the Russian leadership that we are serious.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an important voice in any future EU decision to impose more sanctions, spoke by phone to both Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Putin. She said the situation needed to be de-escalated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone on Monday that Moscow was ready to provide more details to bolster its version of events. Moscow says Kiev deliberately provoked it in order to trigger a crisis.
Merkel said that she would address the Sea of Azov issue with Putin during the G-20 summit and urge him to release the Ukrainian sailors. However, she was opposed to new sanctions.
“We don’t impose sanctions on Russia for sanctions’ sake, rather we impose sanctions to make clear that countries, even if their territorial situation puts them close to Russia, have the right to their own development,” she told a Germany-Ukraine conference in Berlin. “Those are the principles of international law.”
Merkel also rebuffed Poroshenko’s call for increasing military pressure on Russia, saying “we can only resolve this in talks with one another because there is no military solution to all of these conflicts.”
“We will take care of it. Nevertheless, we ask Ukraine as well to be sensible. We know that we can only solve things by being reasonable and holding dialogue,” she further commented.
Merkel also completely dismissed a US and Ukrainian suggestion for the EU to pressurize Russia by cancelling the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The US side also expressed its support of Ukraine. US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that Russia’s actions were “a flagrant violation of international law” and “a cavalier use of force,” and provided evidence that “Russia cannot be counted on right now to keep its word.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed “deep concern” over the incident and said “the United States condemns this aggressive Russian action.”
Poroshenko also praised US President Donald Trump, who cancelled his meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.
Simultaneously, Ukraine continued making claims of supposed Russian misconduct. Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said on Facebook that two Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov, Berdyansk and Mariupol, were effectively blockaded by Russia.
“As long as Russia blocks free navigation, the whole civilized world should take mirror measures against Russia,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman said on the sidelines of the abovementioned press conference with Angela Merkel.
Ukrainian Navy Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian Navy, said Kyiv would ask Turkey to close the Bosphorus Strait between the Black Sea and the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, “so that the Russians pay the price for violating the norms of international law.” Keeping in mind the warming relations between Russia and Turkey and disregarding any common sense, it would still be unlikely to happen.
The Kremlin denied that Russia was blocking any ports and traffic through the Kerch Strait.
“I don’t know of any restrictions at the moment. On the contrary, as far as we know the Kerch Strait is operating normally,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said delays did sometimes occur in the area as a result of bad weather, and the Kerch authority did issue a weather warning on November 29th.
A few days earlier, on November 26th during the urgent UNSC meeting on the incident, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said that the authority was not helping to resolve the problem. The UNSC has earlier rejected the Russian-proposed agenda for the meeting on Ukraine’s violation of Russia’s state border in the Sea of Azov.
“As we are getting closer to [Ukrainian presidential] election scheduled for March, the bankrupt Maidan team needs a serious escalation, and ideally war,” the diplomat said adding that without this, they will not be reelected. “Another dose of ‘anti-Russian fever’ is needed so that people, who have been becoming poorer over the last five years, believe once again that Russia is to blame for all their misfortunes, not their government and their Western ‘puppeteers’,” Polyansky said.
Addressing his Western colleagues, Polyansky said that their five-year “anti-Russian political project, which could simply be called ‘Anti-Russia’, is currently crumbling in front of everybody.”
“You all know very well the real, not declared rates of ‘Maidan reforms’ and other dangerous and destructive processes that push Ukraine closer to the edge,” he added.
Furthermore, the Atlantic Council, the US think-tank, an organization that may simply be dubbed “NATO’s PR office,” also published several interesting articles. One of them praised Trump’s decision to cancel his meeting with Putin.
Trump wrote in a tweet on November 29: “Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting…in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin. I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!”
The other noteworthy Atlantic Council article is called “How to Put Putin in His Place.” It provided some practical suggestions for the US to deal with the Ukrainian-Russian incident.
- First: Trump should describe the consequences of Russia’s “aggression” when and if he meets him in Argentina.
- Second: The United States should provide Ukraine with defensive security assistance to address its maritime vulnerabilities: land-based anti-ship missiles, radars, and surveillance equipment for domain awareness. “None of these systems poses a risk of offensive escalation, but they would send a powerful message to Russia that its actions have consequences.
- Third: The US should lead a discussion in NATO to organize a NATO Standing Maritime Group in the Black Sea, ported at Constanta, Romania.
- Fourth: The US should step up its sanction game on Russia, for example blocking the assets of major Russian banks.
- Fifth: The US shouldn’t “outsource” its diplomacy to France and Germany, but should rather “join forces” with its EU allies to seek results by real leverage and not just rhetoric.
In all, it appears that the EU, NATO and the US will likely not undertake any effective measures. However, it does appear that there might be a push for a further escalation to continue the narrative and “democratically” preserve the status quo of Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine, all the while administering another coat of paint on the somewhat crumbling portrait of “Russian aggression.”
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
- Russia-Ukraine Black Sea Military Crisis: On The Brink Of War
- FSB: Detailed Timeline Of Provocation Acts Of Ukrainian Navy
- Ukraine Imposes Martial Law, Calls On Foreign States To Deploy Warships, Observers In Black Sea, Sea Of Azov
- Detained Ukrainian Servicemen Confirm They Provoked Black Sea Incident With Russia Upon Order From Their Command
- Information War Against Russia. Kerch Strait Maritime Incident
- Ukraine Released Intercepted Russian Radio Communications During The Black Sea Incident (Analysis)
In order to claim the straits, you’ll have to accept that Crimea is rightfully Russian soil. But since it was occupied by ‘unidentified’ soldiers before a vote took place and no international bodies ever acknowledged its transfer, to claim int’l law regarding this isn’t in line with any country’s foreign policy apart from the RF.
Ukraine, on the other hand repeatedly failed at understanding the realities of the Black Sea theatre, where the RF has and will have the upper hand militarily.
So all in all what we see is a gradual shift towards politics done by madmen and idiots on all sides.
Crimea was never Ukraine territory. It was always Russian and even after USSR collapse it was an autonomous republic. If Kosovo had the right of self determination, why Crimea is sanctioned for self determination? It is unlawful and nothing was done wrong from Russian point of view. FUKUS was meddling in internal affairs of Russia and Ukraine and it backfired spectacularly. Now we have civil war and military escalation in Ukraine, very similar to China – Taiwan problem. Not mentioning Yugoslavia – Iraq- Libya – Syria etc.
There are not many madmen on all sides. There is one Soros&Rothschild illuminati center behind all problems.
Zo you are 100% correct. The precedent was set with Kosovo.
Simple as that.
Very ironic example. Balkan war 1+2 in 1912+13. Then WW1 in 1948. The forced Yugoslavia, which actually was 2 states having many, many 1000 Albinians and others deported/displaced.
And next of course WW2 again divided having as I recall it 1.000.000 internal killings.
The the split up after Tito having Milosowic and Tudjman as the most agressive ones. Kosovo displaced by Milosowic.
You certainly are correct about precedense. CHOOOSE – You Choose. KOsovos cant choose. So many are not allowed to choose. How comes. Are You above them.
Thats why we choose by elections, where votes are weapons and debating and deciding is most imprtant and allowed in most things.
ridiculous, so they control all the bad people?
Zo Fu seemes to prefare the bad people in control.
1) It was a muslim Tatar country taken a little by little defending itself from Russia. The reason irs russia now only is, that most Tatars are killed.
Many 1000 children and grandchildren are not allowed to go home to there
2) Ukraine didnt take Crimera as well. It was given to the Ukrainian Region by President Krushtjof in 1956 long with som provinces having only Russians in them by making big combinates based on Iron, Coal Nikel and partly agriculture.
And why. We see it right now. Russia by Russia can claim, they defend Russian citicens layoual to Moscow enough to its legal for Moscow to defend them or at least give support.
Very understandable those Russians mainly prefare to be non Ukrainians.
You might have use of some illuminati Yourself. Its not even a new thing Ukrainians has been different from Russia.The Religios ones are too. They do have their own history too even its overlapped during time.
Your post is a good example of something done by “madmen and idiots” as you put it.
you enjoyed the handshake today? the two buddy mass murderers?
he will never realize, what about are you talking :)
Actually they did. Sovjet was divided in % and Ukraine was given their %. One important thing they by that gave up was nukes and missiles covering the whole Western Europe.
But of course You would prefared they turned half of the at Moscow and Leningrad…
Something for something actually by that was, that West should help them. And they and we do; but unfortunatly they dont seemes able to improve just as Russia.
It is a shame that EU is in one bed with Ukronazis and Poroshenko. This is the same brand of idiots like infamous White Helmets in Syria. And all of that trash is funded by Soros’s NGOs and supported by mainstream media and think tanks. Somebody needs WW3 really desperately. West democracy is dead.
EU???? what EU? what nations ? Germany????occupied since 1945 and taking orders ever since france????since the death of general Degaulle(most folks dont know this, but FRANCE under Degaulle LEFT NATO 1966) ever since degaulle died, france is taking orders too belgium?netherlands?luxenburg?switzerland?austria? wtf do u expect from those countries? Italy?? occupied since 1945 Yugoslavia? does´nt exist anymore, and the bs that came out ie slovenia,croatia,kosovo etc.. those are all fabricated nations Greece? dead country spain?portugal? lol yesterday was a great picture of crown prince cocksucker bin salman and the spanish king, having a great time while discussing future arm shipments… and last but not least..the 30 years + of moslem immigration into european countries which have and had a devastating negative effect on all sides of life. In my country austria for instance here is what the takfiri pricks get when they come into my country from day1
893 euros per month per adult, 234 euros per child per month, free apartment, free healthcare and great leniency in court when they daily rape and murder
FORGET EUROPE!!!!!!
Good post. I agree with you that NATO and the EU are just shameless, weak, pathetic lapdogs and yes boys and yes girls of the US. The diabolical, evil, war monger freaks in the Pentagon and US State Department must be laughing their asses off at the turmoil they cause in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Regarding your native Oesterreich, I was there (Vienna) in April for Easter and what you pointed out about migrant benefits is just downright insane. Add to that the Child Allowance paid out each year (over 280 million euros each year), for many children who don’t even live in Austria. I find that the new Turquoise/Blue government of Kurz and Strache has been overall a big disappointment in both foreign and domestic (especially in terms of public safety) policy. Regarding Vienna, unfortunately I felt that the city is slowly getting worse: increased crime, drug dealing in the open, beggars and incivility. Austria must remain neutral and not get involved in political and military confrontations with Russia and because of the economic sanctions, increase trade with the East. Greetings from 3rd World New York City, USA. Tschuess.
As European we allow us to compare with others. Several of the comment You makle are true, but we have to solve them by changing things.
We are not stiff one string systems and many countries. I think We are with GB more then 510 mio. inhabitants. Thats many more then Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, UAE, Israel, Jordan, Bahrein, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudis.
Compare fx with that and in economy as well.
you are cock to power dick :DDDD
pathetic response
where you prefer to live?
in central african republic :DDDDD
So where is better.
No more Russian Neocolonialisme.
Hard to see West Democrasy is dead. It works well, but have problems too.
Nice, if you would give a list of names af states and protectorates, which is better. You forget Democrasy is based og debating to solutions instead of something else.
I just can’t wait for U.S. freedom of navigation exercises up the Volga River. 1. Coup in Azerbaijan 2. They withdraw from the Caspian Sea Treaty and enter NATO. 3. NATO missile ships enter Caspian Sea, harass Iran and Russia and the U.S. MSM make it look like Russia is obviously the aggressor.
Washington Establishment And Pro-NATO Think Tanks Push Fueling Escalation Of Ukraine Conflict
If they don’t do these evil jobs so then where they will sell their weapons. Washington and their allies creates new markets to sell their own weapons there. LOL.
They have divided many countries and many nations and then sold their own weapons to both to fight on that. They creates hats and fights between brothers just for making money. Could these evils reconcile between two brother nations, no way. wake up.
Not forgetting ‘Integrity Initiave’, the cyber trolls who receive 95% financing from Nato, US State Department, plus, the UK Government.
Would love to be a fly on the wall at the G20 summit? Who is and is not speaking to Trump and May? Remember, this is not the G7, and neither does Nato dominate the G20 nations.
Love what President Putin had to say. He makes a valid point.
Putin: Ukraine Will Get Away With Eating Babies – NATO Provocation – Petro Poroshenko Must Go!… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTg1eE64hMI
G20 summit 2018 –
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7c21bc63db05457163d075c43deefcdbaddf5d7ac50c33c29afc2a117a17bcce.jpg
Putin does not look impressed with Trump. Did President Putin really set off the earthquake? LOL.
Twitter Users Suggest Putin’s G20 Arrival Caused Tremor in Buenos Aires… https://sputniknews.com/latam/201811301070281787-g-20-summit-argentina-earthquake/
Then you have May, who is going to tell everybody everything, yet, there is nought about what words she would like to give President Putin. Doubt she would even be able to look him in the eyes. The so called woman in Westminster, who is so missing her vertebrae.
No doubt the ‘Integrity Initiative NGO’, 95% funded by the tax payers of Nato Member States, plus, the UK and US.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0fd1396d0a01ba6d46c5576cdf5eecf426c6921bdfa417a75d7bc277b8ec021d.jpg
Argentina is hosting the G20 summit, so which two leaders are each side of the President of Argentina, and who are further down the line?
Reminds me of the APEC Summit, with Obama in the Wive’s Club, and President Putin ‘Guest of Honour’. Times do not change, whether Ukraine likes it or not.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/606b8571503bb547ee3df9e07d1666f12b7aaed1ac59a0dd54da8e6ce128f3d6.jpg
Why don’t you add the handshake pic???
Off course the times changes, every day. Backwards? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ
What we will do is to increase NATO´s presence in Black Sea to 180 days a year with nuclear subs and Russia will not be able to do a sh.t about it.
The World Jewish Congress will secure US is not running away from its leadership of EU and Russia´s aggressive manners in the Black Sea´s free International waterways.
Our historical and legal rights to Crimea will NEVER be laid off from our Western side. If Russia wants Western sanctions to prevail the next 1000 years, its entirely and only up to Russia. We have already done enough is enough for peace!