MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Speaker of Russia’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin has called Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko a dictator who, clinging to power, put the world on the brink of war.

"There is no place for such dictators in Europe. One cannot use such methods while struggling for power," the speaker said on Wednesday answering Austrian reporters’ questions on the Kerch Strait incident, when Ukrainian naval ships breached Russia’s state border.

According to Volodin, Poroshenko was behind the incident. "That was a provocation aimed at retaining the Ukrainian president’s personal power, considering that he has no chance of being elected legitimately… He is putting the world on the brink of war in pursuit of retaining his personal power. Our stance is that such actions must be condemned," he stressed.

The speaker recalled that on Tuesday, Russia’s State Duma called on parliaments around the world to condemn Kiev’s policy. "It would be appropriate for national parliaments and inter-parliamentary organizations to come up with their assessment… We need to have similar approaches," he concluded.

Kerch Strait incident

On November 25, three Ukrainian naval ships violated the rules of passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The intruding Ukrainian vessels illegally crossed the Russian state border, trespassed into Russian territorial waters and conducted dangerous maneuvers. In defiance of repeated warnings and demands to halt, the Ukrainian ships carried on violating the law, which drove the Russian forces to use gunfire in order to compel them to stop. As a result, all three ships were detained. In addition, three Ukrainians were injured in the incident, who were later given medical assistance. A criminal case was opened over the violation of the Russian state border.