Protests greet Russian ship's return from Georgia to Ukraine waters. Ukraine's president Yushchenko signs decree

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SEVASTOPOL, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - One more Russian ship returned Saturday from Georgian waters to the Black Sea Fleet's base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. The mine-sweeper Turbinist had taken part in Russia's operations in Georgia. Mirage, a guided missile corvette, returned on Friday morning to the home port of the Russian Black Sea fleet after seeing action against Georgia’s port of Poti, where it shelled Georgian defenses and landed troops who occupied the city. Mirage was involved in the only reported maritime action of the campaign. It sank a Georgian fast patrol boat that had probed within range of its guns.

Rival groups of Russian and Ukrainian demonstrators hurled insults at each other to a background of cannon fire as the Russian navy’s Mirage sailed into Sebastopol on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. The celebratory gunfire could become all too real if fears are realized that Russia may repeat its incursion into Georgia and turn Ukraine into the next Caucasian flashpoint. Crimea has a Russian majority population and, because of its strategic importance, Moscow deeply resented its loss at the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

While quickly snuffed out, the protests demonstrated Sebastopol's emergence as a flashpoint for tensions between Moscow and its former Soviet satellites in the wake of the Georgian conflict. Tension in Crimea has risen because of the public support for Georgia of Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president. Russia accused Ukraine of supplying weapons to Georgia and Yushchenko enraged the Kremlin by ordering restrictions on the future movements of the Russian fleet in Ukrainian waters. The Black Sea fleet facilities are leased from Ukraine until 2017 but Ukraine, which wants to join NATO and the European Union, says it will not renew the lease. Moscow has made clear it is determined to stay.

Ukraine's president, Victor Yushchenko, condemned the use of vessels based in the Russian concession to provide back-up for its assault on Georgia over the disputed enclave of South Ossetia. He signed a decree this month requiring prior notification from Russia of all movements by naval vessels and aircraft from the country's Black Sea Fleet base in the Crimea. Ukraine even threatened to refuse Russian vessels entry to the Sevastopol naval base.

The decree is not yet being enforced, and Russia views it as a provocation and is likely to resist any Ukrainian limits on the deployment of its navy. "I think all issues, including similar provocations, have been discussed under bilateral agreements between Russia and Ukraine on the status of the Black Sea Fleet. We will give a prompt response if anything happens," said Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff. While Ukraine is powerless to stop Russian movements in Sebastopol, there was a brief stand-off as one of its ships moved to accompany the Mirage through the harbor.

Russia retained a strategic advantage on land as well as sea. Sebastopol and the wider Crimean peninsula are virtual Russian enclaves in Ukraine. The protest erupted at a point were tanned holidaymakers normally descend though an arch to the harbor boardwalk. But the strength of the pro-Russian forces, mobilized to show support for the Mirage, was hardly put to the test by the demonstrators.

Reports that thousands of Russian passports have already been distributed on the peninsula have sparked fears that a takeover may be in the offing. Moscow issued passports in South Ossetia to foster its breakaway from Georgia. A western military source advised caution, saying Crimea was effectively already occupied by Russia.

Oleh Yatshenko, the organiser of the anti-Russian protest, displayed two small cuts on his arm, inflicted by pro-Moscow forces, who pushed their opponents away from the shore and ripped away banners. "What Russia did in Georgia was illegal," he said. "We are standing up for our country because they are doing the same thing here." Most of Yatshenko's supporters had arrived from the Western Ukraine. The group carried banners reading, "Shame" and "Out of here!" The Ukrainian government has reiterated its determination not to renew Moscow's lease on the port when it is due for renewal in 2017.

Kiev has shown no signs of backing down despite a furious Russian reaction with Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ogryzko telling the Izvestia newspaper that its preparations for a withdrawal should have already started. He said: "Russia should already now be preparing for the withdrawal of the fleet, which will take place in 2017. Such things do not happen in a day."

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Photos courtesy of AP Photo, AFP, and Ria Novosti

Original Source: Times Online, Telegraph UK, and Ria Novosti