UKRAINE COVETS RUSSIAN LIGHTHOUSES

A court in Sevastopol has ruled that 22 lighthouses operated by the Russian Black Sea Navy should be handed over to the Ukraine. Sources say that the decision by the Appeals Court had been made under a heavy pressure from Ukrainian foreign minister Mr. Boris Tarasiuk, leader of the nationalistic Rukh organisation. Tarasiuk has a reputation of being a Russia hater acting on instructions from outside of the Ukraine. One of his goals in the Crimea is to kick out the Russian Navy and to convert Sevastopol into a NATO naval base. Loss of the lighthouses and other navigation equipment would undermine the Russian Navy’s self-sufficiency. The Kremlin has already angrily reacted to what it considers as another vagary by Ukrainian nationalists. Actually, Ukrainian radicals have been mounting tension in the Crimea and multiplying anti-Russian escapades since the Orange Revolution in 2004. Russia said that courts have no rights to make pronouncements on matters of interstate relations. The Navy is refusing to leave lighthouses. However, according to some reports, lighthouses situated on the shoreline stretching from Balaklava to the Cape Fiolent are shut down. There are concerns that it would seriously endanger the navigation in the area.
Other reports suggest that Tarasiuk is following orders from the West. They point out to lighthouses in the Crimea operated by the Ukraine saying that special equipment was installed there to confuse Russian missile launchers. We could not get an independent confirmation of this assertion.
Many in Sevastopol say that if the lighthouses would be finally taken over by the Ukraine they would be most probably abandoned and boarded up as many other facilities that came under Ukrainian control after the partition of the Black Sea Navy in the 1990s.