Moscow Seeking to Provoke Revolts in Ukraine’s Azov Sea Ports, Ukrainian Admiral Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 27 – Admiral Serhiy Hayduk, former commander of the Ukrainian navy, says that Russia is seeking to provoke revolts in Mariupol and Berdyansk by blocking shipping to them on the Sea of Azov and thus creating increasingly difficult conditions for those employed in those ports (nsn.fm/hots/ukraina-obvinila-rossiyu-v-provocirovanii-buntov-v-strane.html).

            Some 5,000 people are employed in these ports, the admiral continues, and if there is no ship traffic, they will rapidly lose their jobs. Russia is interested in promoting that outcome because it hopes to be able to exploit any social and economic unrest to spread Russian control along the western sides of the Sea of Azov.

            There are even indications that pro-Moscow forces may be doing more than just wait for economic problems to become political ones. Over the weekend, “unknown persons” attacked a concert in Mariupol “beating up both the musicians and the fans” (spektr.press/vzvod-fashikov-na-gruppu-shkolnikov-kak-v-mariupole-rassleduyut-napadenie-na-koncert-pank-gruppy/).

            Given how tense the situation is there, only 10 kilometers for the Donbass region now controlled by pro-Moscow forces, it is entirely possible that someone came from there in order to sow confusion and chaos in the Ukrainian port city, although Russian sources like Spektr. Press insist that no one has yet been able to identify the attackers.

            But of course, if this was an FSB operation, that is exactly how things would play out: agents would cross the border, do their work, and then retreat back to where they had come from, with Russia media providing cover by highlighting the failure of Ukrainian police to bring the perpetrators to justice, something that would also contribute to what Moscow appears to want.