Ten years ago, on January 13, 2006, the Ukrainian Transport Ministry’s Hydrographic Service entered the lighthouse at Yalta and barred Russian personnel from access to the facility, citing that no lease was signed between Russian and Ukraine regarding the basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean peninsula. The tensions in Crimea were a result of a gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
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,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, in response to the statement. “Russia illegally held under its control navigation objects in Crimea.”
On January 19 a Russian armored troop carrier blocked a Ukrainian lighthouse on the south coast of the Crimean peninsula. Russian marines continued to prevent Ukrainian staff from resuming their duties at the lighthouse at Yalta.
Three other lighthouses, in Ai-Todor, Yevpatoria and Takhankut, were still under control of the Russian military.
Only 65 out of 100 hydrographic objects were under Ukraine’s control at the time. The remaining 35 objects were situated at Russian military installations under guard by Russian marines.
Ukrainian officials, however, stated that the Ukrainian Hydrographic Service, not the military of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, oversees the lighthouses and ensures the security in Ukraine’s territorial waters.
The Ukrainian student organization Studentske Bratstvo (Students’ Brotherhood) had been monitoring the conflict. During a January 17 press conference, Studentske Bratstvo said that the Russian Black Sea Fleet not only withholds properties but subleases them to Ukrainian organizations. Oleh Yatsenko, leader of the organization, cited nameplates installed at various locations in Crimea that read “Territory of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Entry forbidden.”
Following a bilateral agreement signed in May 1997, Russia confirmed that Ukraine had all property rights to real estate and land that is in use by the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russian officials claimed that the incident was an international issue and could only be resolved on the intergovernmental level. A meeting was scheduled for February 16 in hopes of resolving issues related to the Black Sea Fleet. Nina Yavorska, press secretary of the Ukrainian State Property Fund, said that a special commission would carry out an inventory of all Ukrainian property in Crimea.
Russia ignored the ruling by a Ukrainian court to return the Crimean lighthouses to Ukrainian control. Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said that Russia had no intention of returning 22 lighthouses and other navigational devices held by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
“If the lighthouses are Ukrainian and the Russians are using them, they must pay for them,” Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov said on February 4 in Symferopol. “The position of the Ukrainian side is as follows: You must pay for what you have not paid. If you don’t want to pay, then free it.”
The Property Fund of the Crimean Autonomous Republic charged that the Russian Black Sea Fleet had occupied 96 facilities in Crimea, and these properties were not mentioned in a Russian-Ukrainian agreement on the division of belongings of the former Soviet navy. The fund also charged that the Russian fleet command had sublet 25 properties it leased in Crimea without the approval of the Ukrainian side, as stipulated by the agreement.
The Studentske Bratsvto pitched five tents near the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol on February 13, on the eve of bilateral discussions as a reminder of the Ukrainian demands.
During a meeting of the Ukrainian-Russian subcommittee on the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s stationing in Crimea that was held on February 14, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Volodymyr Ohryzko said the stationing of the Russian fleet violated the Constitution of Ukraine. Mr. Ohryzko added that he hoped an inventory of Russia’s assets and facilities in Crimea would be completed in two months.
Source: “The latest Ukraine-Russia conflict: lighthouses and properties in Crimea,” by Yana Sedova, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 22, 2006.