KIEV, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian government has notified the Russian Foreign Ministry that it intends to take inventory of the property being used by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a Ukrainian deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.
Volodymyr Ohryzko said the Ukrainian foreign ministry hoped that Russia would provide the necessary assistance to Ukrainian task forces assessing the situation.
"We are proceeding from the view that Russia is interested in this as well and we will not encounter any obstructions in this regard," Ohryzko said. "Otherwise, it would be Russia's obvious violation of its assumed obligations.
"We will start this important work soon and hope that the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet will not put out any obstacles for Ukrainian specialists," Ohryzko said.
On Friday January 13, Ukrainian officials seized a lighthouse in the Crimea, which Russia said belonged to its Black Sea Fleet's hydrographic service.
Last Sunday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said in an interview with Ukrainian television news Channel 5 that Ukraine's measures to repossess the lighthouse used by Russia in the Crimea were legitimate.
"Russia illegitimately held all the navigational facilities of the hydrographic service," he said. "[Russia] had no legal grounds to say that these facilities had any connection with the Russian Black Sea Fleet."
The Russian Black Sea Fleet leases the Sevastopol base in the Crimea. Although Russia and Ukraine have an agreement authorizing Russia to lease the base until 2017, some Ukrainian politicians called Friday for a revision of the contract terms after Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that it wanted to raise prices for supplies of natural gas to Ukraine to international market levels.
