August 11, 2016 (BBC News Europe) Russia has
accused Ukraine of trying to carry out armed incursions into Crimea - the
territory annexed by Russia in 2014 after an unrecognised referendum. The FSB
intelligence agency said two attempted incursions had taken place over the
weekend and a Russian soldier and an FSB employee had been killed. President
Vladimir Putin vowed "further security measures" in response to
Ukraine's "stupid and criminal" acts.
Russian ships and amphibious vehicles took part in military celebrations in Crimea on 31 July
Ukraine's president described the accusations
as "preposterous". "Russian accusations against Ukraine of
terrorism in occupied Crimea sound as preposterous and cynical as the
statements of the Russian leadership about the absence of Russian troops in the
Donbass [region of rebel-held eastern Ukraine]," Petro Poroshenko said. "These
fantasies are only a pretext for making more military threats against
Ukraine," he added. Russian intelligence also said it had smashed a
Ukraine military intelligence network in Crimea and detained a number of
people. They included a Ukrainian national named as Yevhen Panov, who is
described by Russian sources as a Ukrainian military intelligence officer.
Russian state TV has been running
pictures from the FSB, showing rucksacks packed with explosives. Ukrainian "saboteurs",
sent by the defence ministry, were supposedly intending to use them in Crimea. The
claims of Ukrainian "terrorism" on the peninsula have sparked concern
here that Moscow could respond with some kind of military action. The
possibility has been discussed actively on social media, especially after
President Putin's comment that he will not just "pass over" the death
of two Russians.
Others suggest that the incident will be used -
or was engineered, depending on your viewpoint - to scupper the complex peace
process in Ukraine. Straightaway, Mr Putin said more internationally-backed
talks, due in the next few weeks, had been proved "pointless". So
Russia has a reason to stall again on the Minsk peace process, maintain the
unstable status quo in Ukraine and to blame Kiev for all of it.
Russia says one of those detained
is Yevhen Panov. Initial reports suggest he was a former military volunteer
fighting for Ukraine in the east of the country. However he has apparently more
recently been associated with a charitable organisation.
Ukraine has managed to contain
the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and, in purely military
terms, it is hard to see what Ukraine has to gain by provoking its larger, much
more powerful neighbour. For all the talk about rapprochements and peace in
eastern Ukraine, there has been very little concrete progress. Fighting between
Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainians goes on every day.
Just two weeks before Ukraine
celebrates 25 years of independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991, relations between Moscow and Kiev have taken another turn for the worse.
The full article is available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37037401
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