Ukraine, Russia take steps to calm border row

Ukraine, Russia take steps to calm border row

Agence France-Presse
Moscow

Russia and Ukraine on Friday defused an escalating row over a
tiny but strategic isle that had prompted fears of an armed
confrontation between the two former Soviet republics.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced after crisis
talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich in Moscow
that Russia would stop building a dam from the Russian mainland
toward the disputed island of Tuzla.

For its part, Ukraine will withdraw its border guards from the
isle, seven kilometers (4.5 miles) long and 600 meters wide,
between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

"We will not restart the construction (of the dam). Ukraine
will withdraw its border guards from Tuzla, which is a disputed
territory," the Russian prime minister said.

"The (Ukrainian) military must leave this strip of land
immediately," he added, insisting that the deployment of frontier
troops to the island was "an unjustified show of force."

Yanukovich said that a joint ecological commission would
examine the Russian dam project, adding that he hoped that
"Russia will not encroach on the territory and integrity of
Ukraine."

Experts from both countries will spend the next two to three
months studying the construction of the sea dike -- which Russia
says is needed to prevent erosion of its beaches, but which
Ukraine has denounced as a blatant land grab.

The crisis flared on Sept. 29, when regional officials gave
the go-ahead for the construction of the dike from the southern
Russian coast to Tuzla, just over three miles (5.5 kilometers)
away in the Kerch strait.

The strait serves as a shipping gateway to the Mediterranean.

Ukrainian and Russian vessels were involved in a brief
skirmish in the strait on Tuesday, and with the dam now just 109
metres (357 feet) from Tuzla, Ukrainian border guards have been
on heightened alert for days.