Ukraine Says It Reserves Right To Bar Russian Navy
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine warned Russia on Sunday it could bar Russian navy ships from returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia’s coast.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the deployment of a Russian naval squadron to Georgia’s Black sea coast has the potential of drawing Ukraine into the conflict.
“In order to prevent the circumstances in which Ukraine could be drawn into a military conflict … Ukraine reserves the right to bar ships which may take part in these actions from returning to the Ukrainian territory until the conflict is solved,” said the statement which was posted on the ministry’s Web site.
Both Ukraine and Georgia have sought to free themselves of Russia’s influence, integrate into the West and join NATO.
The statement reflected a strong Ukrainian support for Georgia and is certain to anger Moscow, further straining Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Russia’s deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said Sunday he was aware of the statement, but added that the Russian government must analyze it before making comment.
“It makes a third party involved, and it’s quite unexpected,” Nogovitsyn said said at a news conference.
A 1997 agreement between Russia and Ukraine lets the Black Sea Fleet remain in Sevastopol through 2017, but Ukrainian officials have said they want it out after that. The issue adds to emotions over Crimea, which was part of the Russian Federation but ceded to Ukraine during the Soviet era and became part of the independent Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
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Hmmm Maybe WWWIII will have Communist Russia involved. BTW, hasn’t russia learned yet that their “Army” is a joke? I mean seriously in the first day of the war 10 of their MIGs were shot down. How many of our fighters were shot down in Iraq[both times] and Afghanistan? I think the number is 1-2. I know one was shot down in the First Gulf War, but I haven’t heard of any in Iraq, or Afghanistan after that.
August 10th, 2008 at 5:41 amGreat to see other countrie’s in the region standing up to those stupid pricks.
August 10th, 2008 at 6:05 amYou would think after all these years somebody could have come up with an idea for an organization of nation-states allied to fight imperialist designs of dictators and despots which have plagued Europe for centuries.
August 10th, 2008 at 6:19 amMaybe organized under a treaty which gave them more power united than seperate; that had as a founding principle that an attack on one was an attack on all. Which also allowed entry into the ‘organization’ any nation-state that was committed to freedom and democracy.
I guess the notion that you might someday actually have to fight for your principles is kinda scary.
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat…You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all out might and with all the strength God has given us.”
Sir Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940 before the British Parliament. On May 10, 1940 the armies of Hitler invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Europe was engulfed by World War II.
Shall history repeat itself? Only with different players, assuming the same rolls?
August 10th, 2008 at 6:42 amthis may very well be the opening of world war 3. its too early to tell but if more countries start getting pulled in and Russia keeps expanding their area of operation then thats what it will become.
If i was the countries that used to be part of the USSR i would band together with Georgia and stomp these commie bastards once and for all. I would love to see the US in their with some F-16s and A-10s giving ground support. nobody does it like our guys.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:27 am“Shall history repeat itself? Only with different players, assuming the same rolls?”
“And since the end of the Cold War, ethnonationalism has continued to reshape European borders.”
…
“After the fall of communism, East and West Germany were unified with remarkable rapidity, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into Czech and Slovak republics, and the Soviet Union broke apart into a variety of different national units. Since then, ethnic Russian minorities in many of the post-Soviet states have gradually immigrated to Russia, Magyars in Romania have moved to Hungary, and the few remaining ethnic Germans in Russia have largely gone to Germany. A million people of Jewish origin from the former Soviet Union have made their way to Israel. Yugoslavia saw the secession of Croatia and Slovenia and then descended into ethnonational wars over Bosnia and Kosovo.
The breakup of Yugoslavia was simply the last act of a long play. But the plot of that play — the disaggregation of peoples and the triumph of ethnonationalism in modern Europe — is rarely recognized, and so a story whose significance is comparable to the spread of democracy or capitalism remains largely unknown and unappreciated”
August 10th, 2008 at 8:28 am…
“One could argue that Europe has been so harmonious since World War II not because of the failure of ethnic nationalism but because of its success, which removed some of the greatest sources of conflict both within and between countries. The fact that ethnic and state boundaries now largely coincide has meant that there are fewer disputes over borders or expatriate communities, leading to the most stable territorial configuration in European history”
…
“Several decades of life in consolidated, ethnically homogeneous states may even have worked to sap ethnonationalism’s own emotional power. Many Europeans are now prepared, and even eager, to participate in transnational frameworks such as the EU, in part because their perceived need for collective self-determination has largely been satisfied.”
…
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87203/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them.html
United the former Soviet territories can stand against Russia and defeat her. If they allow themselves to be picked off one by one, then they have no future but as buffer slave states to the great red bear.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:48 am