Ukraine bar on watercrafts

Ukraine admonished Russia on Sunday it dismissed Navy ships from returning to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia’s coast. The statement could affect Russian-Ukrainian relations, already strained by energy disputes and Ukraine’s plans to join Nato. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the Russian naval deployment to Georgia’s Black Sea coast has the potential to draw Ukraine into the Russian-Georgian conflict over the separatist province of South Ossetia. Georgia launched an offensive on Friday to regain control over the inland province and Russia responded by sending in tanks and troops and bombing Georgian territory. Russia has deployed a naval squadron off the coast of another of Georgia’s separatist regions, Abkhazia. The ships are part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, based in the port in Sevastopol, which Russia leases from Ukraine.