Ukrainian Leaders Appeal to International Community Over Flare-Up in Crimea

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine addressed EU member states, US, Canada, Japan, and the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs asking them to influence Russia in order to avoid a new round of aggression related to the latest events in Crimea, Interfax Ukraine reports.

"Russian special services have committed another crime by kidnapping a citizen of Ukraine [Yevhen Panov] on the territory of Ukraine in order to fabricate evidence against him. In this context, we would like to remind that Russia continues to hold over 40 Ukrainian political prisoners who fell victim to the aggressive politics of the official Kremlin," the address, signed by the First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Iryna Herashchenko, First Deputy Head of the European Integration Committee Mariya Ionova, and Head of Foreign Affairs Committee Hanna Hopko.

"Today, the occupying country is looking for ways of making Ukraine and its international partners responsible for its destructive actions and creates artificial prerequisites for further exacerbation of military confrontation. We are convinced that such actions of the heads of the Russian state are a direct threat not only for Ukraine, but also for Europe and the whole world," the address says.

As reported, the FSB accused Ukraine of attempting to carry out terror attacks in the occupied Crimea. President Petro Poroshenko thinks that Russia fabricated terror attacks in Crimea to threaten Ukraine.

The FSB claims that "one of the organizers of the prevented terror attacks is Oleksandr Panov, b. 1977, living in Zaporizhzhia oblast, Ukraine, officer of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence." Panov’s brother Ihor Kotelianets thinks that he was kidnapped in Zaporizhzhia oblast while running the weekend errands.

The FSB later released the name of the second arrested ‘saboteur’, Andriy Zakhtiy.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda