KIEV, November 28. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko on Wednesday signed into law a bill on the introduction of martial law, presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko has tweeted.

Martial law will take effect as of the moment the document, signed by the president, is published by the government newspaper Uryadovy Kuryer.

Over the two days after the Ukrainian parliament voted for martial law Uryadovy Kuryer published documents on the introduction of martial law several times, but each time it turned out that either rules of procedure had been violated or the wrong version of the text was published.

The document published on Wednesday says that martial law is effective starting from 14:00 of November 26 for a period of 30 days, while the Ukrainian parliament voted for martial law starting from November 28. Ukrainian political scientist Andrei Zolotaryov has told TASS that from the legal standpoint martial law in some regions of Ukraine is not in force yet.

Martial law in Ukraine

The Ukrainian parliament on November 27, 2018 endorsed President Pyotr Poroshenko’s decree on the introduction of martial law for a period of 30 days as of November 28. Originally Poroshenko initiated the imposition of martial law for 60 days, thus putting a question mark over the presidential election due in March, which entailed an extremely negative response.

Martial law is to be introduced in the regions of Vinnitsa, Lugansk, Nikolayev, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkov, Chernigov, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson and in the internal waters of Ukraine in the Azov-Kerch area.

The measure followed an incident in the Kerch Strait, where three Ukrainian ships on November 25 on the way from Odessa to Mariupol illegally crossed the Russian state border, intruded into Russian territorial waters and carried out dangerous maneuvers. The Ukrainian ships ignored repeated warnings and demands for stopping, which forced the Russian side to use weapons to halt the intruders. All three ships were detained. Three Ukrainian sailors, injured in the incident, were given medical assistance and their lives are not in danger. Criminal proceedings were launched in Russia over the violation of the state border.