Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard
15:44:09
25/11/2018
ria.ru
The patience of Russian sailors is not limitless, said the senator from Sevastopol Vice-Admiral Valery Kulikov to RIA Novosti in connection with the incursion of Ukrainian ships into Russian territorial waters, and reminded how in 1988 the Black Sea Fleet expelled the combat ships of the US.
Earlier the press service of the Crimean Border Service of the FSB reported that three ships of the Naval Forces of Ukraine illegally crossed the Russian border, entered the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation, and moved from the Black Sea to the Kerch Strait via dangerous manoeuvres, not abiding by the legal requirements of the Russian authorities.
“Two armoured ship and a tug, of course, will not pose a threat to Russia. It is like two tanks and a truck. But, undoubtedly, they will be used to create hysteria. The Ukrainian leadership has already dragged half of the ‘formidable and powerful’ fleet into the Azov Sea, they want to create two bases, but at the same time they say that tension is created by Russia,” said Kulikov to RIA Novosti.
“In my opinion the people standing at the leadership of Ukraine are trying to create an absurd socio-political system. In fact, as a participant of those events, I want to remind everyone – we kicked an American guided missile cruiser out of our territorial waters. There is no need to test our durability and patience. It is not limitless,” added the Vice-Admiral.
Kulikov specified that he was a direct participant of the events of 1988, when the Russian Black Sea Fleet forced out American combat ships – the Yorktown guided missile cruiser and the Caron destroyer – from the territorial waters off the coast of Crimea. The Vice-Admiral at that time was the senior assistant to the commander of the “Bezzavetnyy” patrol ship.
The Vice-Admiral expressed his regret that the Ukrainian authorities chose a confrontational course in an artificially created problem in the Sea of Azov, which is also supported by some European Union countries.
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