WASHINGTON, December 17. /TASS/. The United States calls on Europe to look at a possibility of imposing additional anti-Russian sanction following the recent incident in the Kerch Strait, US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker said at a briefing in Brussels on Monday.
He said he had arrived in Brussels for talks with European allies to elaborate "a well-coordinated Western response, Western position" on the Kerch Strait incident. "It’s not in Ukraine’s interest or anyone’s interest to bilateralize a response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine into a U.S.-Russia dynamic," he said.
"Within that then, I think we have to look at the basket of sanctions, look at the basket of monitoring [the situation in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, and the Kerch Strait] or some kind of deployment, for instance of a ship visit or two to the Black Sea to show presence," he noted.
He claimed that the European Union was likely to be ready to support the further restrictions against Moscow and even Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s idea of banning Russian ships from calling at European ports.
"Part of the discussions I had with European Union colleagues earlier today is we have a basket of sanctions in place that relate to Crimea. We have a basket that is there relating to Russia’s failure to implement the Minsk Agreements. And we talked about what should be done in the Sea of Azov," he said. "I think the debate will be, in Europe, over whether this is a third basket or whether this is connected to Crimea."
"But the notion that there needs to be a response and some additional sanctions and listing of names would occur seems to be one gaining some traction and I would not be surprised at all to see that happen in the next month or two," he went on to say.
"The sanctions regime I believe does have an impact on Russia," he claimed. "I think if we are showing that we are reacting when Russia does something such as it just did, through additional sanctions, that would be an indicator to Russia that future acts would also be met with sanctions. So I think that could add some deterrent effect there."
Kerch Strait incident
In violation of the rules of passage via Russia’s territorial sea and the Kerch Strait, three warships of the Ukrainian Navy crossed Russia’s state border on November 25. The Russian side had to use weapons to compel the ships to stop. Three Ukrainian servicemen were lightly wounded. They received medical assistance. The ships were detained and escorted to the port of Kerch. A criminal case was initiated on border violation charges.
The Russian side described the incident as a provocation, but the Ukrainian authorities imposed martial law in some of Ukraine’s regions. Meanwhile, the European Union and NATO called for de-escalation of the situation.
The twenty-four Ukrainian nationals who were detained after the incident have been arrested till January 25. They face charges of illegal border crossing (part 3, article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code), which carry a punishment of up to six year in prison.