The UK Government has condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine today, after Russia attacked and seized Ukrainian naval vessels.
“We condemn Russia’s act of aggression. This incident provides further evidence of Russia’s destabilising behaviour in the region,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman told reporters.
“The UK position is clear, ships must be allowed free passage to Ukrainian ports in the sea of Azov. We urge all parties to act with restraint. Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine.”
NATO has also stated it will hold an emergency meeting with Ukrainian officials at alliance headquarters in Brussels today.
“At the request of President Poroshenko, the Secretary General agreed to convene an extraordinary meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at ambassadorial level in Brussels this afternoon to discuss the current situation,” NATO said in a statement after Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held phone talks with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko.
NATO also offered its “full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law.”
The UN Security Council is meeting shortly, too.
For more on what’s happening in Ukraine, please follow @hthjones on Twitter and have a read at our brief summary, which can be found here.
Sad thing is the ukraine navy have just received the new Gurza-M boats ,now the Russians have got three of them.
I think they were after the Tug mainly, It helps them put their older ships to sea!
lol!! nice.
Why Thankyou dave12, I do try !
I could understand the tug being captured but the Gurza-M boats looked pretty self contained. They must have knew the option was to surrender or be sunk. It’s hard to know what to do, if the Ukraine’s have the will to do it and US support there is no reason Trump can’t arm them to the teeth and give Putin something to really think about, but I doubt Ukraine wants to be turned into Syria at the same time. Sanctions don’t seem to be working either though especially with Germany still happy to trade with Russia it make you wonder… Read more »
If we were as close to Russia as Germany we might not be quite as gung ho as you BB85.
But lets throw mud at Germany while we have Billions of pounds of Russian capitol in the city of London guess that fits in with your Anti EU narrative.
I’m not gun ho. My issue with Germany is they have run their military completely into the ground free loading of the US thinking NATO will protect its borders via the balkins and poland. They have inboldened Putin who knows they don’t have the stomach to defend Ukraine even though their situation is no different to the balkins they just don’t border Germany.
[…] in the day, the UK Government condemned Russia after it attacked and seized the Ukrainian naval […]
[…] Today’s events have gone a long way to proving him correct. […]
The government’s statement is not backed by the ability to do much about Russia’s actions, unfortunately.
I totally agree with you! If the UK wanted they could deploy Typhoons in Romania. If Russia keeps blocking The Sea of Azov, it will justify NATO deploying aircraft carriers in the Black Sea.
Nothing over 15,000t is allowed in the Black Sea, but knowing America they probably wouldn’t care..
“The UK position is clear, ships must be allowed free passage to Ukrainian ports in the sea of Azov. We urge all parties to act with restraint. Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine.”
But Russia HAS been allowed to use force against Ukraine, and free passage to [ports…. in the Sea of Azov] has been denied.
The idea of a flotilla of ARMED NATO ships visiting Ukraine is a good one.
[…] Recent events have gone a long way to proving him correct. […]