Russia has breached international rules through its aggressive behaviour towards Ukrainian naval ships in the Azov Sea, Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
"With full force we condemn Russia's aggressive behaviour and we call on (the country's) leadership to respect international law," the ministry said in a statement.
Poland's Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Monday that the current crisis in Ukraine does not pose increased danger for Poland but called for monitoring of the situation.
"The services have not reported an increased level of threat to Poland as a result of the situation in Ukraine," Blaszczak told a press conference. "Of course this is significant to us due to the fact that we are neighbors both with Ukraine and Russia".
The West should consider imposing further economic sanctions against Russia, a top foreign policy adviser to Poland's President Andrzej Duda said on Monday, after Moscow seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea at the weekend.
"Increasing the sanction regime against Russia should be considered and discussed with allies," Krzysztof Szczerski told a news conference after Duda spoke with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko.
Russian forces opened fire on the ships in the narrow Kerch Strait on Sunday and seized the ships saying they had illegally entered its territorial waters. Ukraine has denied its ships had done anything wrong and accused Moscow of military aggression.
Russia resisted international calls on Monday to release the three Ukrainian naval ships, triggering the most dangerous crisis in years between Moscow and Kiev.
European Council President Donald Tusk condemned Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy vessels in the Kerch Strait.
Russia must "return Ukrainian sailors, vessels and refrain from further provocations," Tusk said on a Twitter post after a phone call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Tusk added that the European Union would "stay united in support of Ukraine."
The EU deemed the situation "unacceptable," a spokeswoman said on Monday, and asked for medical assistance to be brought to the sailors, adding that Russia was obliged to unblock the Kerch Strait swiftly.
With relations still raw after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the incident risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict and is likely to renew Western calls for more sanctions on Moscow.
Russia's FSB security service said its border patrol boats had seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tug boat after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors on Sunday. It said it had opened a criminal case into what it called the ships' illegal entry into Russian territorial waters.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, accused Ukraine of sending the ships to deliberately provoke Russia and said the ranking diplomat at Kiev's embassy in Moscow would be summoned over the incident.
Kiev denied its ships had done anything wrong and accused Moscow of military aggression. Ukraine's parliament was due to consider a proposal later on Monday to impose martial law for 60 days after President Petro Poroshenko met his top military and security chiefs on Sunday night over the crisis.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, Reuters