Ukraine bars entry to Russian men of combat age, EU sees renewal of sanctions on Russia

[rooster59]

Ukraine bars entry to Russian men of combat age, EU sees renewal of sanctions on Russia

By Pavel Polityuk and Tom Balmforth

 

A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service checks a car with a Russian number plate at the Goptovka crossing point on the border between Russia and Ukraine in Kharkiv Region, Ukraine November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevsky

 

KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine on Friday banned Russian men of combat age from entering the country, a move introduced under martial law after Russia fired on and captured three Ukrainian naval ships off Crimea last weekend.

 

Ukraine announced it was barring entry to Russian men between 16-60 years and a senior state security official said Kiev was considering whether to respond in kind with "mirror actions" to the Black Sea incident.

 

Earlier, in a move applauded in Kiev, U.S. President Donald Trump called off a meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Argentina to signal Washington's disapproval of Russian behaviour in the naval clash with Ukraine.

 

The Russian rouble, which is sensitive to events that might lead to new sanctions being imposed on Russia, fell on news of the cancelled meeting. Moscow said it expected the leaders to have an impromptu meet.

 

In a further boost to Ukraine, the EU released 500 million euros in financial assistance to Kiev and European Council President Donald Tusk predicted Brussels would roll over sanctions on Russia at a summit on Dec. 13-14.

 

President Petro Poroshenko, referring to Russia's seizure and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatist uprisings in eastern Ukraine, said banning Russian men was important for stopping a full-scale invasion.

 

"These are measures to block the Russian Federation from forming detachments of private armies here, which in fact are representatives of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," Poroshenko said.

 

"And not allow them to carry out the operations that they tried to conduct in 2014," he added.

 

In Moscow, a Russian lawmaker was quoted by RIA news agency as saying Russia had no plans for a reciprocal move to bar Ukrainian men.

 

EU SOLIDARITY

 

The EU has propped up Ukraine's war-scarred economy since the Crimea annexation while prodding the pro-Western authorities to pass reforms and tackle corruption.

 

"Today's European Commission decision on disbursement comes at a crucial moment when Ukraine and its people face a new aggression from Russia and need to see solidarity from international partners," said Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

 

The G7 group of nations also weighed in on Ukraine's behalf, blaming Moscow's actions that had "dangerously raised tensions."

 

Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for last Sunday's clash at the Kerch Strait through which ships have to pass to reach Ukrainian ports at Berdyansk and Mariupol.

 

Russia has moved the 24 sailors it captured to prisons in Moscow, where three of them are being treated in a prison hospital, Russian TV said. Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Ukraine was trying to get consular access to them.

 

Sunday's clash prompted Ukraine to introduce martial law for a period of 30 days from Wednesday in regions of the country thought most vulnerable to a Russian attack.

 

A senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU and United States should consider banning from their ports Russian ships originating from the Azov Sea as a tit-for-tat measure.

 

Russia says it will deploy a new division of Pantsir medium-range surface-to-air systems - comprising between 12 and 18 military vehicles - on the Crimean peninsula by the end of the year, Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Southern Military District as saying.

 

The planned deployment comes after Russia announced it had deployed a new battalion of advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, its fourth such battalion, to the peninsula's north. A Crimean security source was also quoted by Interfax on Thursday saying that Russia planned to build a new missile early-warning radar station in Crimea next year.

 

Russian officials accuse Poroshenko of artificially manufacturing a crisis to prop up sagging ratings ahead of an election next March.

 

But the incident has prompted renewed calls for more Western sanctions on Russia.

 

Tusk will chair an EU summit on Dec. 13-14, which is due to roll over for another year the bloc's measures against Russia's defence, energy and banking sectors.

 

"Europe is united in its support to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is why I am sure that the EU will roll over the sanctions against Russia in December," Tusk told a news conference in Argentina.

 

The United States and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia since 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea after a pro-Russian leader was toppled in Kiev.

 

Fighting between Ukraine and Moscow-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people. Major fighting ended with a 2015 ceasefire but deadly exchanges of fire are still frequent.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-01

[Topdoc]

It's pretty obvious that this provocation was not only stupid and irresponsible, but also poorly planned and executed. The documents seized by the FSB on the Ukrainian ships show that the Ukrainian captains were given the order to “covertly” sneak under the Kerch bridge.  Someone is bumbling around trying to improve their standing in the election polls

[Tailwagsdog]

You actually believe anything the FSB says? That in itself is unbelievable. You must live in Russia ... ha ha ha

[Kiwiken]

51 minutes ago, Tailwagsdog said:

You actually believe anything the FSB says? That in itself is unbelievable. You must live in Russia ... ha ha ha

And you Sir believe only Western News and Government reports. The Ukraine or Russia may be the guilty Party but assuming the fault is Russia is like believing the Gulf Of Tonkin or that Saddam had WMD's in the fullness of time the opposite was proved

[Nilats]

This is some surreal tragi-comedy... a country with the worst demographic trend and the highest net population flight and emigration now also makes laws that prevents people from actually going *into* the country ????

 

The real headline news would be if Russia stopped Ukrainian male citizens from going to Russia - 2-3 million Ukrainians are working/living in Russia as far as I heard. That would be some caravan to deport.

[grumpy 4680]

      The Ukrainians have legal access to those waters, But its Putin and the FSB (<deleted> silly bas***ds) making life difficult for the Ukraine, co's he wants to be another Hitler, and expand Russia to its former size, against the wishes of those people.

[Jingthing]

Some big stakes games both sides are playing but the facts remain --

Russia stole Crimea

Russia supports the separatist movement in East Ukraine

Russia has sent both military advisors and Russian soldiers (without uniform) into the region before

It's interesting that in the recent ship incident the Russian soldiers were actually uniformed. 

Ukraine has a right to protect their sovereign lands. They already lost Crimea.

It's reasonable though to question the wisdom or be skeptical about the current ban on movement though. 

Russia's non-response seems to be designed to make Ukraine appear paranoid.

But again, Russia already stole Crimea. Why shouldn't Ukraine be paranoid?

[Nilats]

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Some big stakes games both sides are playing but the facts remain --

Russia stole Crimea

Russia supports the separatist movement in East Ukraine

Russia has sent both military advisors and Russian soldiers (without uniform) into the region before

It's interesting that in the recent ship incident the Russian soldiers were actually uniformed. 

Ukraine has a right to protect their sovereign lands. They already lost Crimea.

It's reasonable though to question the wisdom or be skeptical about the current ban on movement though. 

Russia's non-response seems to be designed to make Ukraine appear paranoid.

But again, Russia already stole Crimea. Why shouldn't Ukraine be paranoid?

Typical Trotskite or Goebbels style propaganda... complete nonsense as usual from a person who knows absolutely nothing about history, pre-history and has never met or known anybody from either Russia or Ukraine... ????

[Jingthing]

9 minutes ago, grumpy 4680 said:

      The Ukrainians have legal access to those waters, But its Putin and the FSB (<deleted> silly bas***ds) making life difficult for the Ukraine, co's he wants to be another Hitler, and expand Russia to its former size, against the wishes of those people.

No need to go that far.

The known facts are damning enough.
Russia already stole Crimea.

The separatist movement in Eastern Ukraine supports joining Russia.

Russia has been cool about saying they want that too, but what difference does it make?

Merged into Russia or a Russia proxy separate state, for Putin that's all good.

As far as western Ukraine, of course Russia hasn't voiced an interest in literally taking that over, but there is no doubt that they want it to be a Russian PUPPET state at the very least. Again. 

[Nilats]

I met some immigrants - more like economic refugees from Ukraine in Israel in 2008-2009, some were from Kiev, others from Crimea, etc... I couldn't care less how Russians and Ukrainians divide land between each other. I don't really want to have a dog in this whole fight... as much as I don't want to deal with any country in Eastern Europe - they are all corrupt and messed up... I still have to report Crimeans wanted to split from Ukraine for quite some time... Russia didn't force anybody in Crimea itself to abandon Ukraine... Crimeans have been waiting passionately for that moment, the whole island didn't belong to Ukraine - it's a fact nobody tried to deny... say in 2008 I noticed those from Crimea were not on friendly footing with those from Kiev - they communicated with everybody else but necessarily ignored each other... It was a split always bound to happen imo. The divide definitely didn't start in 2013-14, much earlier than that.

[Ulic]

Lots of mystery. You can't believe a word either side says with any degree of certainty.

[Ulic]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Some big stakes games both sides are playing but the facts remain --

Russia stole Crimea

Russia supports the separatist movement in East Ukraine

Russia has sent both military advisors and Russian soldiers (without uniform) into the region before

It's interesting that in the recent ship incident the Russian soldiers were actually uniformed. 

Ukraine has a right to protect their sovereign lands. They already lost Crimea.

It's reasonable though to question the wisdom or be skeptical about the current ban on movement though. 

Russia's non-response seems to be designed to make Ukraine appear paranoid.

But again, Russia already stole Crimea. Why shouldn't Ukraine be paranoid?

That is one way to look at it. The other is that Crimea has always been part of Russia

and they should never have put it in control of Ukraine. The Russian mistake was not

understanding the Soviet Union could/would break up. Crimea was part of Russia during

the days of the "Charge of the Light Brigade" and the majority of the population is ethnically

Russian. They just took back what they should never have given after WW2.

[BestB]

See, it does to pay provoke Russia and to scream Russians invading, you get 500 000 000 euros as a reward.

Edited December 1, 2018 by BestB

[BestB]

1 hour ago, grumpy 4680 said:

      The Ukrainians have legal access to those waters, But its Putin and the FSB (<deleted> silly bas***ds) making life difficult for the Ukraine, co's he wants to be another Hitler, and expand Russia to its former size, against the wishes of those people.

Yes, have legal access under an agreement that any passing Ukraine would notify Russia in advance, which Ukraine did not. When ships were asked to stop, they ignored the warnings and continued sailing.

 

After being detained, it was found ships had SBU agents on board.

 

But was a nice try to spin the facts

[Jingthing]

7 minutes ago, Ulic said:

That is one way to look at it. The other is that Crimea has always been part of Russia

and they should never have put it in control of Ukraine. The Russian mistake was not

understanding the Soviet Union could/would break up. Crimea was part of Russia during

the days of the "Charge of the Light Brigade" and the majority of the population is ethnically

Russian. They just took back what they should never have given after WW2.

Not always. Quite recently it was part of Ukraine. Russia did not have the legal right to steal it even with the historical background. A vote within Crimea was an obvious sham. The only legal way for it to become Russia again was through full consent of the entirety of Ukraine. Of course that wasn't going to happen, so Putin just stole it. I get that some people think that kind of behavior is OK but most of the civilized world certainly does not. 

[BestB]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Not always. Quite recently it was part of Ukraine. Russia did not have the legal right to steal it even with the historical background. A vote within Crimea was an obvious sham. The only legal way for it to become Russia again was through full consent of the entirety of Ukraine. Of course that wasn't going to happen, so Putin just stole it. I get that some people think that kind of behavior is OK but most of the civilized world certainly does not. 

Voting went the same path as Kosovo, nothing illegal about it.

 

 

[Nilats]

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Not always. Quite recently it was part of Ukraine. Russia did not have the legal right to steal it even with the historical background. A vote within Crimea was an obvious sham. The only legal way for it to become Russia again was through full consent of the entirety of Ukraine. Of course that wasn't going to happen, so Putin just stole it. I get that some people think that kind of behavior is OK but most of the civilized world certainly does not. 

I had a pretty good acquaintance from Ukraine - named Bogdan( the name is as Ukrainian as it gets)... He was Ukrainian on both sides of the family... ancestry from Kiev, Zaporozhian Cossacks, etc etc... Nationalist... It was a long time ago... but we were good friends, common interests... some people are just good to hang out with, have a conversation... watch a movie talk about a book so on and so forth. He had a Masters Degree from Ukrainian University, also worked as part time rector at a University - basically a Nationalist, proud ethnic Ukrainian but definitely not an Idiot.

 

Anyway the funny part is I think in 2001 I had a historic argument with him - but it was all the other way around - I tried to prove that Crimea was part of Ukraine - I tried to link history of Crimean Khanate with that of Ukraine - which my Nationalist Ukrainian buddy vehemently denied - he emphatically exclaimed on number of occasions - that Crimea is definitely not Ukraine... He said it's definitely Russia... in fact proper Ukrainians like himself never even wanted it... It's kind of hard to get which way it really is... In any case I don't understand why people like Jingthing even comment on these issues - with his zero clue and knowledge on the subject ????

[BestB]

47 minutes ago, Nilats said:

I had a pretty good acquaintance from Ukraine - named Bogdan( the name is as Ukrainian as it gets)... He was Ukrainian on both sides of the family... ancestry from Kiev, Zaporozhian Cossacks, etc etc... Nationalist... It was a long time ago... but we were good friends, common interests... some people are just good to hang out with, have a conversation... watch a movie talk about a book so on and so forth. He had a Masters Degree from Ukrainian University, also worked as part time rector at a University - basically a Nationalist, proud ethnic Ukrainian but definitely not an Idiot.

 

Anyway the funny part is I think in 2001 I had a historic argument with him - but it was all the other way around - I tried to prove that Crimea was part of Ukraine - I tried to link history of Crimean Khanate with that of Ukraine - which my Nationalist Ukrainian buddy vehemently denied - he emphatically exclaimed on number of occasions - that Crimea is definitely not Ukraine... He said it's definitely Russia... in fact proper Ukrainians like himself never even wanted it... It's kind of hard to get which way it really is... In any case I don't understand why people like Jingthing even comment on these issues - with his zero clue and knowledge on the subject ????

Because it gives him an opportunity to bash Putin, no matter what the facts or incidents are.