Newspaper Page Text
4A Friday, November 30, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WORLD
Ukraine urges NATO to deploy warships
Tensions with Russia mount following weekend confrontation in Crimean Peninsula
EVGENIY MALOLETKA I Associated Press
Ukrainian soldiers stand atop an APC near Urzuf, south coast of Azov
sea, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 29.
BY YURAS KARMANAU AND
VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine — The presi
dent of Ukraine is urging NATO to
deploy warships to the Sea of Azov,
a proposal that has been sharply
criticized by Russia as a provoca
tion that could worsen tensions
between the two countries follow
ing a weekend confrontation in the
waters off the Crimean Peninsula.
In an interview published ear
lier Thursday with the German
daily Bild, Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko laid out his hope
that NATO would “relocate naval
ships to the Sea of Azov in order to
assist Ukraine and provide secu
rity” against Putin’s expansionist
ambitions.
The Russian coast guard fired on
and seized three Ukrainian vessels
and their crews on Sunday. Rus
sia alleged the Ukrainian vessels
had failed to obtain permission to
pass from the Black Sea into the
Sea of Azov through the Kerch
Strait. Ukraine insisted its vessels
were operating in line with interna
tional maritime rules in the strait,
which separates Russia’s mainland
and the Crimean Peninsula that it
annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
While condemning the Russian
action, NATO is not expected to
send ships to the area, a deploy
ment that could trigger a confron
tation with Russia. A 2003 treaty
between Russia and Ukraine stipu
lates that permission from both
countries is required for warships
from anywhere else to enter the
internal sea.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lung-
escu said the alliance already has a
strong presence in the region, and
that NATO ships routinely patrol
and conduct exercises in the Black
Sea, especially those from Bul
garia, Romania, and Turkey, which
border the sea.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said early Thursday that
she plans to press Putin at the
upcoming G-20 summit in Argen
tina to urge the release of the
Ukrainian ships and crews and to
de-escalate the situation.
“We can only resolve this in talks
with one another because there is
no military solution to all of these
conflicts,” she said.
It was not clear whether Merkel
knew of Poroshenko’s call for
NATO’s deployment when she
spoke.
Trump tweeted his decision to
cancel a meeting with Putin this
weekend. Trump, who was en
route to Buenos Aires for the G-20
summit, said he would not be meet
ing Putin because “the ships and
sailors have not been returned to
Ukraine from Russia.”
The Kremlin said it has not been
notified of a cancellation.
Russian news agencies quoted
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman,
as saying that the Kremlin only
learned of the cancellation from
Trump’s tweet.
Peskov said the cancellation
means that Putin will have “a
couple of more hours” for “useful
meetings” with other leaders of the
world’s 20 largest economies.
The Ukrainian government said
Russia has blocked commercial
traffic to and from Ukrainian ports
on the Sea of Azov, which Russia
quickly denied.
“Putin wants nothing less but to
occupy the sea,” Poroshenko said.
“The only language he understands
is the unity of the Western world. ”
Putin on Wednesday criticized
the West for what he described
as connivance with Ukraine’s
“provocation.”
“The authorities in Kiev are suc
cessfully selling anti-Russian senti
ments as they have nothing else left
to sell,” he said. “They can get away
with whatever they do. If they want
to eat babies for breakfast today,
they will likely get served too.”
In response to Sunday’s events,
Ukraine has imposed martial law in
parts of the country. Putin accused
Poroshenko of provoking the naval
incident in a bid to impose martial
law to shore up his sagging popular
ity and sideline competitors ahead
of a presidential election in March.
Peskov said Poroshenko’s
request for NATO warships is
“clearly aimed at provoking fur
ther tensions,” adding that it was
driven by “electoral and domestic
policy motives.”
Poroshenko said martial law
wouldn’t restrict travel, cash with
drawals or currency purchases by
Ukrainians, but Russians will face
what he described as “restrictions.”
Later Thursday, Ukrainian bor
der guards announced that all non-
Ukrainians will be barred from
crossing into the Russia-occupied
Crimea by land after martial law
went into effect.
While it is still possible to fly
into Crimea from Russia or drive
in on the new bridge across the
Kerch Strait from southern Russia,
Ukraine considers that a violation
of its borders. Thus, the ban means
that non-Ukrainians will either risk
criminal liability in Ukraine or
refrain from traveling to Crimea
until the end of the year.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Infra
structure says Russia has blocked
35 merchant ships from leaving
or entering the Sea of Azov since
Wednesday.
The ministry said 18 ships have
been stuck in the Black Sea, wait
ing to pass through the Kerch Strait
into the Sea of Azov. Another 17
vessels were unable to leave the
Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and
Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov, it
said.
Peskov insisted that Russia
hasn’t imposed any restrictions on
the ships’ passage, adding that a
possible logjam could be linked to
poor weather.
Conditions deteriorating quickly in Tijuana shelter
REBECCA BLACKWELL I Associated Press
Tents are set up inside an overflowing sports complex where more than 6,000 Central
American migrants are sheltering in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov. 28.
BY CHRISTOPHER
SHERMAN
Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico — Aid
workers and humanitarian
organizations expressed con
cerns Thursday about the
unsanitary conditions at the
sports complex in Tijuana
where more than 6,000 Cen
tral American migrants
are packed into a space
adequate for half that many
people and where lice infes
tations and respiratory infec
tions are rampant.
As a chill rain fell, the
dust that coated every
one and everything in the
open-air stadium turned to
mud Thursday, making the
already miserable condi
tions worse. On one side of
the complex, a mud pit grew
where people took outdoor
showers next to a line of foul
smelling portable toilets.
The one large wedding-
style tent pitched in the
middle of a sports field and
several smaller ones with a
capacity for just a few hun
dred people were far from
adequate for the swelling
number of migrants who
keep arriving daily. The vast
majority of the migrants
were camped in makeshift
enclosures made of lashed
blankets and sheets of plas
tic or flimsy tents. Another
200 people slept on side
walks because they couldn’t
find space in the complex or
decided it was more com
fortable outside.
“The truth is there is no
room there inside. We asked
yesterday,” said Astrid Yaj-
aira of Sonsonante, El Sal
vador, who spent the night
with three friends on a
sidewalk in front of a ware
house across the street from
the stadium. She had a sore
throat and had hoped to find
shelter inside.
The United Nations chil
dren’s agency, UNICEF,
said it was “deeply con
cerned” for the well-being
of more than 1,000 migrant
children waiting in Tijuana
or still moving north through
Mexico. According to local
officials, of the more than
6,150 migrants at the shelter
as of Wednesday, 1,068 were
children.
“These children have lim
ited access to many of the
essential services they need
for their well-being, includ
ing nutrition, education,
psychosocial support and
health care,” UNICEF said
in a statement Wednesday.
Making the situation worse,
the agency’s workers had to
remove the coloring books,
crayons and few other mate
rials they had for children
late Wednesday, because
the agency lost its space on
a baseball field to the arrival
of more migrants.
Mexico’s National Human
Rights Commission also
urged the government to
act Thursday, noting that
the sports complex was
only planned to house 3,500
migrants and now had
nearly twice that many.
“It’s unmanageable,” said
Edgar Corzo, who heads the
commission’s migrant rights
division. The overcrowding
“can produce all kinds of
infections, all kinds of things
can spread and we have four
cases of chicken pox. They
are contained but it’s a risk.”
Miguel Angel Luna Bif-
fano, a health volunteer with
the Nazarene Church Com
passion Ministries, which
has been accompanying the
caravan since the migrants
crossed into southern Mex
ico, said his aid group was
dealing with lice and nit
infestations as well as many
respiratory infections. In
the tropical south they had
mostly treated dehydra
tion and feet damaged and
blistered from walking hun
dreds of miles.
“The overcrowding here
causes them to get into
places where they shouldn’t
like under the bleachers”
where it’s filthy, Luna said.
“There’s overcrowding and
very few hygiene norms.
... With the water and the
cold there are going to be
too many infections, a lot of
fevers. There is going to be a
need for antibiotics.”
On Wednesday, a group
of migrant volunteers joined
municipal workers in bag
ging up garbage.
Wearing latex gloves, Dar
win Doanin Bardales said he
had offered to help because
the unsanitary conditions
were a health risk.
“If we let this garbage pile
up, it will make us sicker
than we already are,” the
19-year-old Honduran said.
“There are a lot of us who
are already infected with
cough, colds.... If we let the
garbage pile up it will put the
children at risk, and all of us
here.”
Before the rain began,
the Tijuana government dis
tributed sheets of plastic to
help the migrants prepare
their makeshift shelters of
intricately hung blankets
and tarps. Tijuana officials
have said they are working
to open a new shelter, but
they haven’t said when or
where, though it was likely
to be much further from the
border.
As rain pelted the area
on Thursday, Alex Mendes
gingerly picked up his small
sopping wet tent and moved
it to one side. He spread a
large sheet of black plastic
under it and then proceeded
to completely wrap the tent
in hopes that would keep
him from another wet, sleep
less night.
“It’s a day’s work but I
don’t want to get wet,” the
29-year-old Honduran said
of the $7.50 he spent on the
plastic.
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