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Photo from Ukrinform
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday shrugged off a threat from the United States President Donald Trump to cancel a meeting with him due to Moscow’s seizure of three Ukrainian navy ships, Reuters reports.
Putin, in his first public comments since the incident, said that the Ukrainian vessels had clearly been in the wrong, He dismissed the clash as a minor border issue and accused President Petro Poroshenko of orchestrating the crisis, in order to boost his dire ratings before the presidential election.
“It was without doubt a provocation,” Putin told a financial forum in Moscow of the incident. “It was organized by the president ahead of the elections. The president is in fifth place ratings-wise and therefore had to do something. It was used as a pretext to introduce martial law.”
Putin said the West was willing to forgive Ukrainian politicians because it bought into their anti-Russian narrative.
He said he also still hoped to meet Trump at the G20 summit in Argentina this week, and Washington had not yet informed Moscow that the meeting was off.
Trump has been briefed on the situation but no decision has been made, White House officials said yesterday.
Russia in the meanwhile is sending more missiles to Crimea.
Vadim Astafyev, a spokesman for Russia’s southern military district, was cited by Russian news agencies as saying that a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by year’s end.
Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems, which have a range of up to 400 kilometers, allowing Russia to control large areas of the skies above the Black Sea. The new missile deployment to Crimea would allow Russia to increase its air defense coverage area.
Russian provocations began on Nov. 25. It started with a Russian coastal guard ship ramming into a Ukrainian tugboat that was transporting two artillery boats from Odesa to Mariupol. Russia blocked access to the Azov Sea altogether and sent two Ka-52 attack helicopters to tail the Ukrainian ships. Finally, it fired on the vessels.
Russian Special Forces then seized the three Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea. Several sailors were wounded.
Poroshenko then signed a decree introducing martial law in the country. The Verkhovna Rada committee approved the decree, and finally the Rada voted to pass martial law in 10 regions of the country for 30 days.
Arsen Avakov, Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, posted a video that shows the Russian ship trailing the Ukrainian tugboat and ramming into it intentionally.
