MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, on Wednesday endorsed an appeal on parliaments of the UN Security Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) member-states to condemn Ukraine’s illegal steps in the Kerch Strait.
"The Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly is asking the parliaments of foreign states, which are permanent members of the UN Security Council and members of the OSCE, first of all the parliaments of Germany and France [members of the Normandy Quartet] to strongly condemn Ukraine’s illegal steps on November 25, 2018 in the Kerch Strait, and also the Ukrainian authorities’ decisions that followed," the statement said.
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The senators note that on November 25 the Ukrainian Navy’s vessels breached Russia’s state border, violated Russia’s law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of December 10, 1982, which defines the terms for the vessels’ passage through territorial waters of a coastal state.
The parliamentarians voiced concerns over the fact that this provocation by the Ukrainian authorities whipped up international tensions and served as a reason for restrictions for Russian and Ukrainian citizens. "The Federation Council’s members are convinced that this violation of the Russian state border was a deliberate act and plotted by the Ukrainian leadership with the goal of exacerbating Ukrainian-Russian relations. There is no doubt that the provocation was timed to the beginning of the G20 meeting and also the start of the presidential election campaign in Ukraine," the document said.
Reasons behind provocation and its repercussions
The senators also emphasize that martial law in some Ukrainian areas was a reason behind the provocation rather than its aftermath, and this decision was aimed at ramping up Russophobia in the Ukrainian society and it restricts the rights of people in the areas where the Russian-speaking citizens live.
The members of Russia’s upper house are convinced that slapping a ban on entry to Ukraine for Russian men aged between 16 and 60 is an unfounded move. Millions of people on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border have become victims of another anti-Russian campaign spearheaded by the Kiev regime, they said.
While continuing its destructive steps on encouraging a split in the Orthodox world, Ukraine’s authorities are using far-fetched pretexts to limit the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and things have come even to "mass searches and interrogations of the clergy," according to the statement.
Besides, the crews of vessels in the Kerch Strait have also become hostages of the Ukrainian leadership’s irresponsible policy.
The senators are confident that the Ukrainian authorities’ actions pose a threat to peace and security in the region and create obstacles for free communication between Russians and Ukrainians.
"The Federation Council’s members regret that despite evident facts confirming Kiev’s violation of the international law some Western states have once again taken the cue from the Ukrainian authorities and accused Russia of stirring up the conflict situation. The plans of some countries to either turn a blind eye to or keep silence about Kiev’s illegal and provocative policy, which has been gaining steam, will again mean an actual encouragement of dangerous steps, which may trigger irreparable consequences," the statement stressed.