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.