The latest Ukraine-Russia conflict: lighthouses and properties in Crimea

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A conflict over Ukrainian lighthouses in Crimea took a bad turn after a Russian armored troop carrier blocked a Ukrainian lighthouse on the south coast of the peninsula for the entire day on January 19.

Though the troop carrier left in the evening, Russian marines continued to prevent Ukrainian staff from resuming their duties at the lighthouse located on a sandbar in Yalta.

Three other lighthouses, in Ai-Todor, Yevpatoria and Tarkhankut, are still under control of the Russian military.

The conflict started after several officials from the Ukrainian Transport Ministry's Hydrographic Service entered the Yalta lighthouse and barred access to Russian personnel on January 13 on the grounds that no lease was signed with the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

This was the main reason that Ukrainian officials appeared at the Yalta lighthouse and took it under their jurisdiction, said Yurii Formus, the chair of the Yalta seaport.

Russian officials called the incident a provocation and "a seizure" and demanded that their fleet staff be allowed on the lighthouse territory.

"We can't seize things that we own, we can only take them back," Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk said on January 14 in response to the statement. "Russia illegally held under its control navigation objects (in Crimea)."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on January 13 noting that Russia has no property rights in Crimea.

Moreover, under bilateral agreements signed in May 1997, Russia confirmed that Ukraine has all property rights to real estate and land that is in use by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

At the same time Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov acknowledged on January 17 that there are no official agreements concerning Ukrainian hydrographic objects. Negotiations are still in progress.

The dispute over lighthouses in Crimea became another sticking point in relations between Ukraine and Russia after the gas conflict, revealing the legal deficiencies of bilateral agreements between the two countries.

"The situation surrounding the lighthouses infringes on Ukraine's national interests and undermines our authority in the world," said Anatolii Kinakh, National Security and Defense Council secretary, in a January 16 interview with Channel 5. "In recent years the so-called 'diplomacy without neckties' caused many problems concerning the handover to Ukraine of hydrographic objects, including lighthouses, and land."

Only 65 of 100 hydrographic objects are under Ukraine's control. The other 35 objects are situated at Russian military installations and are guarded by Russian marines.

However, Ukrainian officials state that it is the Ukrainian Hydrographic Service that oversees the lighthouses, which ensure security in Ukraine's territorial waters, not the military of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Members of the Ukrainian youth organization Students' Brotherhood (Studentske Bratstvo) who have been monitoring the latest conflict said during a January 17 press conference that the Russian Black Sea Fleet not only withholds properties but subleases them to Ukrainian organizations.

Oleh Yatsenko, the leader of Studentske Bratstvo, asserted that after the Yalta lighthouse incident Russia seized new properties in Crimea and installed special nameplates inscribed with the words "Territory of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation."

Ukrainian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Volodymyr Ohryzko said on January 17 that the nameplates are illegal and that the territory doesn't belong to Russia.

Ukrainian officials should sue Russia for its activity in Crimea, said Mr. Yatsenko. "At the Sevastopol police department I was assured that if there were court decisions, they would set all the lighthouses free [of Russian control]," he said.

However, this would hardly solve the problem, as Russian officials don't want to acknowledge Ukrainian court decisions that order them to return hydrographic objects to Ukraine, as happened in case of the Yalta lighthouse.

Russian officials insist that this is an international problem that must be solved on the intergovernmental level.

A special commission will hold a meeting on February 16 and try to settle all issues regarding the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Mr. Kinakh said.

The press secretary of the Ukrainian State Property Fund, Nina Yavorska, said in a January 15 interview with the Russian-language newspaper Kommersant that a special commission would soon carry out an inventory of all Ukrainian property in Crimea.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 22, 2006, No. 4, Vol. LXXIV

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