Kyiv said to have violated 1997 agreement on Russia's use of Black Sea port facilities
belonging to its navy in the Crimean city of Yalta on Friday in violation of a bilateral agreement that allowed Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to use Ukraine’s facilities.
Ukrainian officials denied the accusations, saying the lighthouse was Ukraine’s property.
Employees of Ukraine’s state hydrography company entered the lighthouse on Friday and barred their Russian counterparts from access to the site, Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said in a statement.
Dygalo voiced concern about the “unlawful” move and warned that it could jeopardize the safety of shipping in the area. He called it “a provocation contradicting the basic agreement on the Black Sea Fleet.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Moscow has demanded that Ukrainian officials provide an explanation and take “immediate” measures to allow Russian fleet personnel to perform their duties.
The incident “cannot fail to cloud the atmosphere of Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Kamynin said in a statement, adding that two Russian diplomats had been set to Yalta to look into the situation.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasiliy Filipchuk called Russia’s accusations of a seizure “conscious disinformation.”
“All the navigation and hydrography facilities on Crimea’s sea shore, including the (Yalta) lighthouse … are Ukraine’s property,” Filipchuk said in a statement.
After years of bitter arguments, Russia and Ukraine signed a 1997 agreement on the division of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet that allowed the Russian navy to remain in the Crimean port of Sevastopol until 2017.
During a recent fierce dispute over the price for Russian natural gas supplied to Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said they could consider raising the $93 million annual rent Moscow pays for the use of Sevastopol.
Yelena Bilash, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian hydrography company’s Sevastopol office, told The Associated Press she had no information on the incident.
The hydrography office charts out the sea and monitors sea levels and the shore line and provides ships with data.
