Commission at the level of Defense Ministries of Ukraine, U.S., UK and Russia should be established to prevent escalation of military conflict in Crimea

To prevent the escalation of a military conflict in Crimea provoked by the Russian military men, we need immediate convocation of a joint commission at the level of Ministries of Defense of Ukraine, the U.S., the UK as members of the Budapest Memorandum. This was started by Prime Minister of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk at a press conference following the conference call with the commanders of military units stationed in the Crimea Tuesday, March 18.

Arsenii Yatseniuk recalled that a Ukrainian soldier has been wounded in Crimea: "The conflict goes from a political stage to a military stage caused by Russian military men."

The Prime Minister said that he instructed Defense Minister Igor Teniuh to immediately contact the Ministers of Defense of the Russian Federation, the United States and Great Britain "as the country-guarantors of the territorial integrity under the Budapest Memorandum."

"The full responsibility for deployment and escalation of military conflict after today's speech of Vladimir Putin personally lies on the Russian president and the Russian leadership," the Prime Minister stressed.

"We consider that we should to establish the Commission at the level of defense ministries urgently to prevent an escalation of the military conflict provoked by the Russian military men," A. Yatsenyuk said.

The Prime Minister appealed to the Russian delegation to the OSCE, "which blocks the decision making to deploy monitoring mission in Ukraine in particular in Crimea." We understand the motives. Today, Russian troops opened fire to the Ukrainian military men - and this is the war crimes that have no period of limitation."