The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine under the chairmanship of President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision to offer the President of Ukraine the introduction of martial law for a period of 60 days. It is a special legal regime in Ukraine in order to create conditions for repelling armed aggression and ensuring national security, eliminating threats to independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine<\/p>\n
The Head of State noted: “I want to emphasize separately that we have all irrefutable evidence that this aggression, this attack on the Ukrainian Navy\u2019s warships was not a mistake, not an accident, but a deliberate action. Including the use of weapons against Ukrainian sailors. The use of weapons had severe consequences, six sailors, according to the preliminary information, were wounded – some of them injured, some of the wounded. Two sailors are severely wounded”.<\/p>\n
The President stressed that Ukrainian sailors are deprived of an opportunity to come on the radio and establish contact with their command, their destiny is unknown. He noted: “Unfortunately, after qualifying the actions of the Russian Federation, the units of the Black Sea Fleet, the units of the FSB border service as aggression, we do not exclude other operations, including ground-based, against sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine”.<\/p>\n
“Therefore, as President and as Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in accordance with the Constitution, I make a decision to support the proposal of the Military Cabinet. To submit the respective decision to the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council and address it to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.<\/p>\n
“I would like to appeal to the people’s deputies to arrive tomorrow in Kyiv for an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada in order to hold a closed discussion of the draft decision and make a responsible decision for the defense of the state,” the Head of State said.<\/p>\n
The President also stressed that the introduction of martial law in no way means that Ukraine will carry out any offensive actions. “Ukraine will carry out its actions exclusively for defense of its territory, protection and safety of its citizens,” he emphasized.<\/p>\n
In accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on introduction of martial law, Chief\u00a0of the\u00a0General Staff\u00a0\u2014 \u0421ommander-in-Chief\u00a0of the\u00a0Armed Forces\u00a0of\u00a0Ukraine ordered to lead all detachments and troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in full operation readiness.<\/p>\n
The President of Ukraine appealed to the leadership of the Russian Federation demanding the immediate release of Ukrainian servicemen who were brutally detained in violation of international law and whose fate is unknown. The President also noted that Ukraine requires to hand them over to the Ukrainian side together with the ships urgently. He called for the de-escalation of the situation both in the Sea of Azov and in other directions. The Head of State expects a quick reaction to this appeal.<\/p>\n\n
Remember that, on Sunday 25 November 2018 the ships of the Russian Federation violating the freedom of navigation unlawfully used force to three Ukrainian vessels: two small gunboats \u201cBerdyansk\u201d and \u201cNikopol\u201d and the raid tugboat \u201cYany Kapu\u201d sailed from the Odessa seaport to the Mariupol seaport in accordance with all exciting multilateral and bilateral international treaties and rules of navigation. These actions once again illustrate the armed aggression of Russian Federation against Ukraine as it is particularly defined in the article 2 of the United Nations Charter and regulations of UN General Assembly 29\/3314 dated on 14 December 1974 on Definition of Aggression. Actually, Russia has increased its military actions against Ukraine in the sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","publication-type":[43],"class_list":["post-30194","press-center","type-press-center","status-publish","hentry","publication-type-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n