US condemns Russia for violating Ukraine's sovereignty

Ukraine's parliament approved on Monday the request of President Petro Porosenko to establish the war law in the country following a Sunday incident, in which Russia seized three Ukraine ships and their crews.

On Monday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Organisation Nikki Haley sentenced Russia for “the scandalous violation of Ukraine's sovereign territory”.

At an emergency Security Council meeting, Mrs. Haley called the seizure of ships as “a presumptuous act that must be condemned by the international community”.

Russia fired at two Ukrainian ships and crashed a third ship Sunday in the Black Sea, catching ships and accusing them of illegal access to its territorial waters.

President Poroshenko softened the previous version of a draft code to propose the war law at a 30-day duration of a visible concession to rivals that would allow the elections to be called according to the plan in December.

Poroshenko said Monday he was aiming to declare war law “to strengthen Ukraine's defence capabilities amid increased aggression and a cool act of aggression by the Russian Federation”. He added that Ukraine plans “to continue sticking to all international obligations”.

Poroshenko is demanding that Russia release the sailors and the Ukrainian ships immediately.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of violating international norms with dangerous <x0medes that created threats and risks for normal ship movement in the area of”.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also called on Russia on Monday to free Ukrainian Navy ships, saying that “has no justification for Moscow's actions.

What we saw yesterday was very serious”, Stoltenberg said after an emergency meeting of the Western military alliance held over Ukraine at special request.

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Russia, meanwhile, ignored Western calls to free three Ukrainian ships. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov accused Ukraine of provoking, violating key principles of international law.

There are continuing violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine, even without war law: bombings of residential areas and social infrastructure, murder of civilians. And with the proclamation of the law of war I think these radical nationalists will feel completely free to act. We call on Kiev's Western supporters to calm those who are trying to secure political advantages from military hysteria due to approaching elections or other events in the country”, he said.

Sunday's incident began when a Ukrainian contractor was escorting two navy ships from the Black Sea port of Odessa to the Ukrainian port of Marioupol, on the Azov Sea through the Kerc Strait.

Karc Strait, is the only crossing between the two seas.

A 2003 treaty defines the Azov Sea and the Kerc Strait as common territorial waters.

Russia said Ukrainian ships set foot in its territorial waters and accused Ukraine of not informing him that the ships were planning to sail through the Strait ʹ claims that were rejected by Ukraine.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since Moscow annexed the Crime Peninsula and sparked a pro-rus separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.