TALLINN – Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser says he considers the situation in Ukraine’s Pryazovia region (southern part of Donetsk region, Zaporizhia region, eastern part of Kherson region) may pose a threat to security.
Commenting at the request of Interfax (interfax.ru) on the results of a visit of foreign ministers of the Baltic States to Poland to Donbas, eastern Ukraine, this week, Mikser said: “The purpose of the visit was to get a better overview of the security situation and the economic position of Ukraine, to confirm our unity with it, to support it and draw international attention to the rather difficult situation in which Ukraine and the [ports] of Mariupol and Berdiansk are after the events in the Kerch Strait in November last year.”
In his opinion, what happened in the Kerch Strait “was a manifestation of escalation, an act of Russian aggression during which it attacked Ukrainian navy boats and detained their crews.”
According to him, “in fact, the situation there has been difficult for a long time. Its aggravation began almost immediately after Russia completed the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait connecting the mainland with illegally annexed Crimea and proceeded to the inspection of ships.”
“In fact, Russia has been suffocating Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov from the economic point of view. The situation is aggravated by the fact that in most cases the detention of vessels amid inspections lasts days rather than hours, which of course affects the ports,” he said.
He expressed the opinion that “there is also a humanitarian component, relating both to the areas that are out of control of Ukraine and the areas of Mariupol and Berdiansk, where the situation may worsen to such an extent that it will pose a threat to security.”
