PACE Approved Discussion Of Kerch Strait Situation During Winter Session - President

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has agreed on the conduct of an urgent debate over the situation in the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait during the assembly's winter session, PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier said on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has agreed on the conduct of an urgent debate over the situation in the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait during the assembly's winter session, PACE President Liliane Maury Pasquier said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, a source from PACE told Sputnik that the debate was approved by PACE's Bureau of the Assembly.

"The bureau has made a positive decision ... If there are no objections, then these debates will be conducted on January 24, at 10 a.m. [09:00 GMT]," the PACE president in her speech at the opening of the assembly's winter session in Strasbourg, adding that the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Volodymyr Ariev, and 51 lawmakers had proposed discussing this topic.

An urgent debate on the topic of "Open Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: Disruption of the Peace Process and a Threat to European Security" was requested before the start of the session.

On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats, and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained the 24 crew members on board after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to declare martial law. Putin said the provocation could be linked to Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko's low approval ratings ahead of the presidential election.