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Kremlin disagrees with Poroshenko’s claim Kerch Strait incident was act of aggression

The Kremlin disagrees with such interpretation of the matter

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The Kremlin disagrees with Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s claim made in an interview to Fox News the Kerch Strait incident was an act of aggression and war.

"We disagree with such interpretation, because it was a provocation by Ukraine and gross violation of Russia’s state border, which entailed the proper consequences for the intruders," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday.

Peskov said the Ukrainian authorities were using Russia’s enemy image for the sake of attaining internal electoral aims.

"It is clear to the naked eye the election campaign in Ukraine is going on and Russia’s enemy image is being used for attaining internal electoral aims," he said.

In reply to a remark by a Ukrainian journalist the intruders had allegedly acted on the orders they had Peskov recalled that investigation was in progress into what happened and that the crews of Ukrainian ships were detained for violating the border.

"As a matter of fact, what you’ve just said means that possibly there had been special orders to violate the state border of Russia," Peskov said.

Asked if it was appropriate to apply the Russian Criminal Code to Ukrainian military servicemen, who were citizens of another country, Peskov explained that Russian criminal legislation made no difference between the professional or other affiliation of other countries’ citizens who have violated border crossing rules.

"It was an instance of violating Russia’s state border," Peskov said.