Germany is ready to Finance the monitoring of the Kerch Strait, said Maas
KIEV, January 18 — RIA Novosti. The format of the mission to monitor the situation in the Kerch Strait will be agreed during the negotiation process, Germany is ready to share the cost of its funding, said the foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas on Friday.
“There will be costs that we will undertake. In the end, there should be a transparent decision, all parties must give their consent,” said Maas at the briefing following the meeting with foreign Minister of Ukraine, which was broadcast live.
He noted that the process of harmonization of the proposal has just started. “Paul (Klimkin, Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine-ed.) some issues raised that are important for Ukraine that we will consider. The Russian side there are some questions that are of great importance. That is, we have not come as far to say that this mission already exists. How it will look will depend on how will be negotiating in the future,” added Maas.
The incident in the Black sea took place on 25 Nov: three ships of naval forces of Ukraine crossed the Russian border and moved from the Black sea to Kerch Strait. As it later said Russian border guards, the ships maneuvered in a dangerous manner, did not respond to the requirement to stop and was eventually arrested, and the sailors were arrested. The 24 Ukrainians, the FSB has been charged with illegally crossing the Russian border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident in the Black sea as a provocation, noting that among the crew members of Ukrainian vessels were two agents who actually ran this operation. In his opinion, the provocation was intended to increase the rating of Petro Poroshenko before the elections.