KIEV, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea accused Russia's navy Tuesday of the "illegal" use of some 96 facilities on Crimean territory.
In a statement that appeared to threaten an escalation in the two countries' dispute over Russia's naval presence on Ukrainian territory, the republic's property fund said Russia had unilaterally decommissioned 35 facilities and sublet a further 25 without approval from the Ukrainian authorities.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet has the use of a range of facilities under a 1997 agreement that divided the Soviet Black Sea Fleet but allowed Russia to continue to use the Crimean port of Sevastopol in exchange for $93 million per year in rent.
That agreement has come under the spotlight recently, amid a deterioration in relations between Moscow and Kiev that began with a dispute over the price of Russian gas deliveries to its neighbor.
Russia this month accused Ukrainian officials of breaching the agreement by seizing a Crimean lighthouse. Ukraine responded that all such facilities in Crimea were Ukrainian property.
