Ukraine May Push Russian Warships Out

Ukraine May Push Russian Warships Out -MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukraine government may force Russia's Black Sea Fleet out of a naval base at the port of Sevastopol by refusing to renew the lease.On Monday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told the BBC that Ukraine might refuse to issue the Russian fleet a new lease upon its expiration in 2017."Yes, I can imagine that easily after 2017. Why not, if the Ukrainian government then in power decides not to prolong the lease?" he said.In that case, Russia would have to end its 200-year-old presence at the port, on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, which is mostly populated by an ethnic Russian population.The possibility was considered by Ukraine after Russia's August confrontation with Georgia. Ukraine claims that Russia could use force to occupy Crimea, thus securing the future of its fleet.This is while Russia has repeatedly asserted that the August war was sparked by Georgia's attack to reclaim the independence-leaning republic of South Ossetia and that it therefore has nothing to do with the sovereign Ukrainian port of Sevastopol,the crimeajewel."We are not aggressive…. We have recognized the territorial integrity of all former Soviet republics. That was in 1991. Russia, of course, has no territorial ambitions regarding any former Soviet country," Ivanov said.