The 30-day martial law is expiring at 14:00 (Kyiv time) on Wednesday.
Martial law was introduced from 14:00 on November 26, but actually came into force on November 28 in 10 regions – Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, as well as in the internal waters of Ukraine’s Azov-Kerch coastal area. It came as a response to Russia’s seizing Ukrainian vessels.
On November 25, three Ukrainian ships were captured by the Russian special forces in the Kerch Strait. According to Ukrainian media, Russia took prisoner 24 people, 6 sailors were injured. In turn, Vladimir Putin called the incident ‘provocation staged by Petro Poroshenko ahead of the presidential election in Ukraine’.
According to Petro Poroshenko, imposing martial law was also caused by a ‘dramatic increase’ in the number of Russian units re-deployed along the entire length of the border. In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Poroshenko said that the Russian leader ‘was itching to grab hold of another piece of Ukraine’.
On November 30, the Ukrainian State Border Service tightened border control and restricted arrivals of foreign citizens, first and foremost male Russian citizens aged from 16 to 60. The restriction is aimed at preventing Russia from forming the so-called private armies in Ukraine.
National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said restrictions for men – citizens of the Russian Federation – may remain, even after martial law expires.
Belsat.eu, following Interfax Ukraine
Phot. Pavlo Bagmut/Ukrinform/ZUMA Wire/Forum
