BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The standoff between Russia and Ukraine in the Sea of Azov provoked by the detention of three Ukrainian vessels for entering illegally the Russian territorial waters looks like a well-planned scenario, which might have been « encouraged » by the United States, experts told Sputnik.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border. According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the vessels sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov, and were seized by Russia after failing to respond to a demand to stop.
As a response to the incident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree declaring martial law in select regions of Ukraine that lie on the Russian border as well as the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov for 30 days.
‘The Westerners, mainly the United States, who so far had not dared to defy Russia militarily in the Sea of Azov, obviously pushed Poroshenko on the offensive. Their hope was that Russia would respond militarily, which would make them the bad aggressors’, French geopolitical specialist Jean-Paul Baquiast said.
Belgian military expert Pierre Henrot agreed with his French colleague, saying that the incident indeed might have been inspired by Washington and sought to test Russia’s resolve.
