Russia charges US, Britain with stirring up tensions in Black Sea

Russia has charged the United States and Britain with seeking to incite conflict in the Black Sea, following the UK military’s “provocative” actions off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula in the strategic waters.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made the remark on Friday, adding that Washington and London were fueling tensions in the region by failing to accept Crimea as a part of Russia.

Ryabkov said Moscow reserved the right to respond resolutely to any “provocative” actions in the region, adding that Russia would defend its borders by any means.

“Washington and London are denying reality... they are trying to provoke conflict,” he said. “These are Russian territorial waters, this is our border. I can confirm that we will defend it with all possible means, including military.”

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17, 2014, and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum in which 96.8 percent of participants voted in favor of the move, which plunged relations between Moscow and the West into crisis.

The latest development came a day after Moscow slammed as a provocation a British destroyer’s breach of Russian territorial waters off the Crimean coast and warned the UK not to make any further provocative actions in the region.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had stopped a violation of the state border by the British destroyer HMS Defender off Crimea’s Cape Fiolent.

According to the ministry, the British military vessel ventured three kilometers into Russian territorial waters, prompting a Russian border guard patrol ship to fire warning shots and a Sukhoi-24M bomber to drop bombs in front of the destroyer.

Following the warning maneuvers, the HMS Defender left the waters, but the Russian ministry slammed the trespassing as a crude violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and called on London to investigate the actions of the destroyer’s crew members.

Earlier in the day, Russia said hostile actions by the British warship near Russian territorial waters could not have been carried out without the urging of the US.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the White House and the Pentagon had referred reporters to London to ask London about the warship incident in the Black Sea.

The incident came amid intensifying tensions between the West and Russia over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

SS