Archaeologists Discover Wreck Of HMS Prince Which Sank Off Ukraine Coast During Crimean War

BALACLAVA, Ukraine -- Archaeologists say they have discovered the wreck of HMS Prince, a British naval vessel which sank near the port of Balaclava during the Crimean War.
Some 144 men on board the ship were killed after it sank during a storm in November 1854 and thousands of badly needed winter uniforms were also lost.

Although underwater expeditions have previously found parts of the ship, this is the first positive identification of the vessel.

Sergei Voronov, of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, said divers had discovered a plate fragment from the captain's mess last summer.

After months of meticulous cleaning, the fragment revealed the name of the company which owned HMS Prince before it was hired by the Royal Navy - the General Screw Steam Shipping Company.
Mr Voronov and his colleagues are hoping to attract international support to explore another ship which also sank during the Crimean War.

HMS Prince was lost during a hurricane force winter storm during the historic siege of Sevastopol, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Only six of her crew survived.

The 2,700 ton ship was at deep water anchor outside the port when high waves tore it from its anchor and it was dashed on to rocks.

The sinking caused outrage in Britain with soldiers suffering from the extreme cold and widespread disease in what is now the Ukraine.

The Crimean War, which lasted from October 1853 to February 1856, saw the Russian Empire against an alliance of the British, French, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

It was during the war, at the Battle of Balaclava, that the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade took place where 272 British soldiers died.

The Crimean War was the first to include the tactical use of railways and telegraphs. A total of 374,600 people died during the conflict, many of them from disease.

It also led to the establishment of the Victoria Cross in 1856, the British Army's first universal award for valour.

Ukraine, Russia To Construct Transport Bridge Over The Kerch Strait

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Viktor Yanukovych believes that due to the conduction of the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014, Russian Federation is interested in construction of the bridge across the Kerch strait, Black sea, in the Eastern Crimea.
The joint resolution regarding the construction of the transport pass across the Kerch strait will be inked during the meeting of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev with his Ukrainian counterpart scheduled for May 17-18, 2010, TSN TV channel reported.

“The bridge will be constructed from the Ukrainian sea port of Kerch to the Russian port in the Krasnodarskiy region, Yanukovych said Thursday in the Crimea.

“I think that Russia is interested in the construction of the bridge in terms of conduction of the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014. I believe that we, together with President Dmitriy Medvedev, May 17-18 will adopt a joint decision in regard of the bridge construction. The bridge should be constructed the quickest possible way,” Yanukovych emphasized.

During his prime minister tenure in 2007 Yanukovych has declared that the bridge over the Kerch strait to connect the Crimea with Krasnodarskiy region would be constructed by the Euro 2012 soccer championship.

Crimean Tatar Leader Backs EU, NATO Membership For Ukraine

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- The outgoing leader of Crimea's Tatars says that NATO membership for Ukraine is the safest way to avoid a repeat of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008.
Mustafa Dzhemilev, the head of the Crimean Tatars' Mejlis or parliament, spoke on December 4 ahead of the Kurultai, or Crimean Tatar Assembly, to be held in Sevastopol on December 5-6.Dzhemilev said he supports Ukraine's moves to join the European Union and NATO. He added that although a referendum in Ukraine might show a lack of support for joining NATO, it is the duty of politicians to convince people to take "the right direction."Dzemilev said European integration will be useful for Crimean Tatars in terms of protecting human rights and gaining support for minority issues.The agenda of the Kurultai will include discussion of the January presidential election in Ukraine and the election of a new head of Mejlis, replacing Dzhemilev.He said his decision to leave the post is not supported by many members of the Crimean Tatar diaspora or the Kurultai.Dzhemilev, who spent many years in the gulag as a Soviet dissident, has been the chairman of the Crimean Tatar Assembly since 1991.He said incumbent Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko had unfortunately failed to keep his campaign promises.Dzhemilev called for a tolerant election campaign to take place without insults and social polarization, and said many people still have to overcome "Soviet propaganda" and review their personal values.Dzhemilev said that any discussion about Crimean Tatar separatism or annexation to Russia is baseless, but he said that one of the most important and worrying questions for Crimean Tatars is the preservation of their national identity.He added that more efforts should be made in terms of security because of attempts made by Russian authorities to undermine Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar bodies.Dzhemilev said he believes that Russia's Federal Security Service is behind reported operations to assassinate him. He referred to the arrest on October 26 of two alleged members of an Islamist group, At-Takfir wal-Hidjra, who were reportedly planning to kill Dzhemilev.

Ukraine Fears For Its Future As Moscow Muscles In On Crimea

YALTA, Ukraine -- As Ukraine prepares for its first presidential election since the Orange Revolution, there are signs that its giant neighbour to the east will not tolerate a pro-western outcome.
From the terrace there are views of the Crimean peninsula, with fir trees, dark green cypresses and a shimmering bay. Inside – through a pleasant Italian courtyard – is the room where Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt sat together around a wooden table and divided up postwar Europe.But almost 65 years after the "big three" met in the Crimean seaside resort of Yalta – now in Ukraine – the question of zones of influence has come back to haunt Europe. Russia has made it clear that it sees Ukraine as crucial to its bold claim that it is entitled to a zone of influence in its post-Soviet backyard.Last month, a group of east European leaders and intellectuals gathered in the Livadia Palace, where Britain, the US and the Soviet Union held the Yalta conference in February 1945. The idea was to discuss Ukraine's strategic future. But the discussion was overshadowed by one question: will there be a war between Russia and Ukraine?The scenario is not as daft as it seems. In August, Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, gave his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko, an unprecedented diplomatic mugging. In a seething letter, and subsequent video message, Medvedev reprimanded Yushchenko for his "anti-Russian" stance. He told him that, as far as Russia was concerned, the pro-western Yushchenko was now a non-person.After reeling off a list of grievances, Medvedev said he would not be sending an ambassador to Kiev. He also said he was reviewing Russia and Ukraine's 1997 friendship treaty – a hint that Moscow may no longer respect Ukraine's sovereign borders. The message was blunt: whoever wins Ukraine's presidential election in January has to accept Russia's veto over the country's strategic direction."The letter was most unfortunate," Volodymir Gorbulin, Ukraine's former national security adviser, said. Gorbulin, now the director of the National Security Problems Institute in Kiev, wrote an article last week suggesting that, 18 years after Ukraine got its independence, Russia may be ready to dismember it. "We have to find a way of mutual coexistence," he warned.The flashpoint, Gorbulin says, is Crimea, the lush peninsula beloved by 19th-century Russian writers and Soviet tourists. It is Ukraine's only Russian-majority province. It is also the home of Russia's Black Sea fleet – anchored just around the coast from Yalta in the historic port of Sevastopol. Under the terms of a lease agreement with Ukraine, Russia is supposed to vacate the base in 2017. But it doesn't want to.In recent weeks, pro-Kremlin newspapers have been speculating that Crimea might soon be "reunited" with mother Russia, solving the fleet issue. The best-selling Komsomolskaya Pravda even printed a map showing Europe in 2015. The Russian Federation had swallowed Crimea, together with eastern and central Ukraine. Ukraine still existed, but it was a small chunk of territory around the western town of Lviv.In a symbolic gesture, several Russian restaurants in Moscow have stopped selling Ukrainian borsch. They are still serving up the dishes of tasty purple beetroot soup, but they have renamed it "Little Russia" soup. Little Russia, or Malorossiya, is what Kremlin ideologists are now calling a post-independent Ukraine, back under Russia's grasp.Ukrainian diplomats are worried. One said: "We are seeing [from Moscow] a resurrection of re-integrationist rhetoric and ideology." He added: "It isn't just about replacing Yushchenko, but about changing the trajectory of Ukraine's [western-leaning] development. Russia thinks we are a half-sovereign country."Medvedev's video was an ultimatum, the diplomat added: accept Russian domination, voluntarily renounce plans to join Nato and renew the lease on Russia's naval base. Under these conditions Ukraine's new president – lame-duck incumbent Yushchenko has no chance, according to opinion polls – would be little more than a Russian puppet, the diplomat suggested.Last month, Ukraine's nervous intellectual class complained in a letter that the west had abandoned it. Other eastern European countries also share a strong sense of betrayal following Barack Obama's decision last month to cancel America's planned missile defence shield in Poland – a key Ukrainian ally – and the Czech Republic. The shield was seen by many east Europeans as a guarantee against future Russian aggression."A lot of people in this part of the world are seriously shitting themselves," one analyst in Yalta admitted bluntly. "We don't know what Obama's deal [with Moscow] was. They think that Russia will take it as a green light," he added. Washington insists it dropped the shield following a new assessment of Iran's nuclear threat.But many in Ukraine believe the White House sacrificed its commitments to eastern Europe in order to "reset" relations with Moscow. The reasoning is clear: Washington needs Russia's help on Iran and other issues. The Bush administration strongly rejected Russian attempts to pressure Ukraine.Obama, in contrast, is preoccupied with Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. Few are under any illusions that he is prepared to wade in to help Ukraine should Russia choose to attack.The Europeans, of course, disapprove of Moscow's imperial muscle-flexing. But so far Brussels hasn't offered its own clear alternative. It has indicated that Ukraine has no hope of joining the EU in the foreseeable future.In May, the EU invited Ukraine and five other post-Soviet states to join a new "eastern partnership" – a scheme scathingly described by one EU thinktank as "enlargement-lite". But the EU, unlike Russia, has refused to liberalise its visa regime for Ukrainians. Moscow, meanwhile, says the partnership is a cack-handed attempt by the EU to build its own rival influence sphere."I'm disturbed that the EU didn't rebuff Medvedev's letter," Dr Olexiy Haran, the founding director of Kiev University's school for policy analysis, said. He continued: "I'm afraid that the absence of a reaction combined with some elements of Obama's 'reset' policy can be read as a message – that the west is giving a free hand to Russia in dealing with post-Soviet space."Others go further. According to Gorbulin, Europe's apparent abandonment of Ukraine is as pernicious as America's. He points out that Nato countries have "stopped the struggle" for Ukraine in order to preserve good relations with Russia.France and Germany, especially, have rebuffed Yushchenko's attempts to join Nato. Gorbulin dubs the Europeans' informal deal with Moscow "Munich Agreement 2", comparing it to the notorious September 1938 Anglo-French deal that allowed Hitler to seize the Sudetenland, the German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia.Over on Yalta's promenade, there are few signs that the region could soon be plunged into war. Yesterday, tourists strolled along a harbour, past stalls where you can have your photo taken as Marie Antoinette. A group of middle-aged ladies were dancing and swaying under the pine trees, as a crooner croaked out syrupy Soviet melodies.Most residents showed little enthusiasm for a possible war. "I served in the Red Army when we all still lived in the Soviet Union. There's no way I would fight against Russia," Yevgeny – who declined to give his second name – said.Others, however, said that the mood inside Russia had grown more hostile, following a wave of state propaganda depicting Ukrainians as the enemy. The Kremlin has accused Kiev of arming Georgia during last year's South Ossetian war. "A friend from St Petersburg visited recently and asked, 'Why do you hate us?'" Alexander, a 32-year-old taxi driver, said.A Russian attack on Ukraine is improbable. But before the election on 17 January there is a possibility that a minor clash could ignite a deadlier conflict. In August, Ukrainian court officials tried to seize back a lighthouse occupied by Russian troops. No shots were fired."There could be an accidental or deliberate confrontation," Andrew Wilson, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, predicted. "Another unspoken problem is that the Black Sea fleet is a bit like the East India Company – all over the place. You have all this extra infrastructure, you have commercial activities, lighthouses and all sorts of back-door operations."He concluded: "It doesn't mean Russia will invade. But it does have the potential to fast-forward things very quickly." Wilson described Medvedev's letter as "extraordinary". "He's saying, 'Here are the rules for your foreign policy, domestic policy, and here's how to interpret your constitution, and history'," he noted.This month, Russian deputies adopted the first reading of a military doctrine that sanctions the use of the army abroad to protect national interests. "There are signs that the Kremlin would not rule out using forceful means to reach its foreign-political aims," the Ukrainian intellectuals said in their appeal to Obama.Most observers, however, believe that prime minister Vladimir Putin and Medvedev will use the threat of war to weaken and destabilise Ukraine. According to Gorbulin, war is only likely when other options have been exhausted.To a large extent, Ukraine has itself to blame for the mess. Since the 2004 pro-western Orange Revolution Kiev has been in a state of political crisis. Yushchenko has fallen out with his one-time ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister. They have been involved in a power struggle that has paralysed governance and brought the economy to the brink of default.In an interview with the Observer, presidential candidate Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine would not be bullied. Yatsenyuk – former parliamentary speaker, and a mere 35 – is contesting the presidency against Tymoshenko, Yushchenko and the pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich. "There is no going back to the USSR. There can be no more empires, and no more spheres of influence," Yatsenyuk declared.Of the four main contenders, Yanukovich has positioned himself as the Kremlin's favoured son. He draws support from Ukraine's Russian-speaking industrial south and east. He has said he will recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia's Russian-occupied provinces.So far, Moscow hasn't backed any candidate. Some sources suggest that Vladimir Putin hasn't forgiven Yanukovich for the debacle of 2004, when Moscow recognised Yanukovich as the winner of a rigged presidential election.Yanukovich lost in a re-run to Yushchenko. Yanukovich is ahead in the polls, but Putin has better relations with the populist Tymoshenko, who may steal through to win in a run-off second vote.Whoever wins will face the problem of how to deal with Moscow. In his video address, Medvedev made clear that he regards Russia and Ukraine as indivisible "brothers". Russian civilisation emerged from Kievan Rus – a confederation of city-states based around Kiev in the ninth century. According to this view, Ukraine is an integral part of Russia – and essential if Russia is to be an empire once again.Back at the Livadia Palace someone had incongruously installed several plastic aliens next to the table where Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met. Last month's conference was organised by Yalta European Strategy, a pro-European organisation that campaigns for Ukraine's accession to the EU.Some participants were optimistic. The Kremlin's messages should not be read too seriously, they suggested. "It's noise. It's nothing to do with reality," Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Hryhoriy Nemyria, told the Observer dismissively. "We need more Europe in Ukraine. We are not looking at alternatives."

Russia Admits Violation In Ukraine Base Incident

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia made a rare admission on Sunday that it had violated Ukrainian law by trying to transport cruise missiles outside its Black Sea naval base of Sevastopol.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian police blocked a convoy of Russian trucks from leaving the base to transport missiles through the Ukrainian city, adding to tensions between the two ex-Soviet states."We acknowledged there were violations of basic agreements on basing the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol," RIA quoted Russian navy commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky as saying."We believe those were serious violations," he said. "Those responsible will be punished, quite heavily at that."Vysotsky, who was in Sevastopol to mark Russia's annual Navy Day, said the paperwork dealing with the convoy had not been not done properly.Moscow leases a base for its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a port in the Crimea peninsula populated mainly by ethnic Russians. The status of the base has been a thorn in relations between Moscow and Kiev since Ukraine's independence in 1991.Ukraine, which has committed itself to closer ties with the West and whose President Viktor Yushchenko is pressing for NATO membership, wants Russia to close the base in 2017 as stipulated by existing agreements.Russia sees NATO expansion up to its borders as a threat to its security and was troubled by joint Ukrainian-NATO naval exercises last July in the Black Sea.Tensions hit a peak the following month, when Russia sent warships from the base to Georgia during its five-day war with the Caucasus state. Yushchenko backed Georgia in the conflict.The two sides have traded accusations over a series of incidents concerning the base and in the past have been reluctant to acknowledge any guilt.Relations are also marred by disputes over Russia's gas supply to Ukraine and its transit to Europe.

Russian Oil And Gas Swap For Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula?

KIEV, Ukraine -- According to Ukrainian sources, Russian officials are in informal discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts over the possibility of swapping Russian oil and gas for Russia’s long-term lease of the Crimean Peninsula.
The Crimea Peninsula extends into the Black Sea and has a rich history, which is apparent by its Greek ruins, specifically at Chersonese. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is stationed at the Crimean city of Sevastopol, while around 52 percent of Crimea’s population is Russian.After defeating the Tartars in the end of the eighteenth century, the peninsula became part of Russian territory. In 1954, Khrushchev, some say acting beyond his powers, gave the Crimea to Ukraine.Ukraine’s economic growth is expected to plunge 10 percent this year as the global economic crisis continues to bite, and this is making it exceedingly difficult for the capital of Kiev to pay its gas bill.In a tedious replay of events exactly three years earlier, Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas company cut off supplies to Ukraine on January 1 over unpaid debts. But since Ukraine serves as a major supply corridor for Russia’s nervous European customers, the incident once again infuriated Brussels and beyond.Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshchenko met her counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow where they signed a new gas agreement on January 19th. The deal allowed for gas supplies to continue, yet it did not save the famous-mane princess of the Orange Revolution from facing the wrath of her political opponents back home.Under the new contract, Ukraine pays Russia $450 per 35,314 cubic feet of gas.“This is obviously unfair. I’m sure that those who signed this agreement and accepted these terms will have to answer for their actions,” the Ukrainian president was quoted as saying, adding that $450 was “an exorbitant price.”Some Ukrainian officials and media have publicly asked why Yushchenko was not informed about the terms of the contract before ink was put to paper.At the beginning of March, masked Ukrainian Security Service agents, who serve under President Viktor Yushchenko, raided the headquarters of the country’s gas and oil company Naftogaz, reportedly seizing documents relating to the January deal.Putin, speaking at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday, criticized the actions, saying that “all it is doing is discrediting [Ukraine] and prompting thoughts about alternative routes of delivery for our hydrocarbons.”Russia has in the past floated the idea of using its planned South Stream gas pipeline as one viable route to bypass cash-strapped Ukraine.Kiev’s Mounting DebtOn top of a $16.43 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ukraine’s acting finance minister confirmed that the debt-burdened country has asked Russia for a $5 billion loan to pay for natural gas deliveries.“This loan will be used to buy gas,” Ihor Umanskiy said on Wednesday.The IMF has already provided Ukraine $4.5 billion, but has refused to release the second tranche of around $2 billion until Kiev proves that it is capable of turning around its ailing economy.“Ukraine is in dire economic straits,” said a high-profile Ukrainian businessman, who formerly served as a deputy minister in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, and who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “And there are some members of the opposition who think that Ukraine will have to make some uncomfortable decisions, and this may involve future swap deals with its Russian neighbor.”The businessman then alluded to informal talks between “politically active individuals” that would grant Russia long-term use Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, which includes Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in return for an undisclosed annual amount of Russian gas and oil supplies to Ukraine.“I was not present at the alleged talks,” the source said via telephone, “but I was informed that the talks focused on the idea of swapping Russian oil and gas supplies in return for Ukraine granting Russia a 99-year lease of the Crimea Peninsula.”“This sounds like a bad joke,” commented Dmitry Babich, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Russia Profile, an on-line political website. “There is absolutely nothing in Ukraine’s constitution that would permit such a trade-off.”Babich then mentioned similar stories that filled the air when Russia and Japan were holding talks over the disputed Kuril Islands [Four small islands that were occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II].“There were rumors that Russia would give Japan the islands, and Japan would pay money to Ukraine, which in turn would use the funds to purchase Russian oil and gas,” Babich saidEqually distrustful of the claims is Fyodor Lyukanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs.“Such deals are impossible in principle,” Lyukanov said. “To exchange territorial integrity for oil and gas – if we imagine this could happen – is an unequal exchange. Ukraine would receive resources that would eventually disappear, while Russia would get land. Impossible.”Yet there are signs that Moscow is losing its patience with Ukraine, which threatens to disrupt Russia’s longstanding resource partnership with its European clients.“Clearly, If Kiev cannot find ways to guarantee the viability of its contracts, then alternative forms of doing business will have to be found,” the former deputy minister said.“I personally do not see why such a swap could not work," he said. “Russia would get its naval rights, while Ukraine would get the oil and gas supplies it so desperately needs. A win-win situation.”

Yushchenko Instructs PM To Save Artek Children Center

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president has instructed the country's prime minister to look into and take urgent measures to prevent the possible closure of the cash-strapped International Children's Center Artek in Ukraine's Crimea.
During a video link between Kiev and Moscow devoted to the problem, Artek's chief doctor, Mykhailo Bezugliy, blamed interest groups, which plan to take over the center's land valued at some $100,000 per 100 sq m, for orchestrating its financial woes.The opposition Party of Regions has accused Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko of pushing Artek to bankruptcy."Public attention, generated by media reports, in particular those saying the government is pushing Artek to bankruptcy... are causing concern," the presidential press service quoted Yushchenko as saying.The president gave the prime minister one week to deal with the matter.Located in the southern Crimea not far from Yalta,the area of the crimeajewel Artek is famous as the main Soviet-era pioneer camp that took children in all year round since the 1930s and even carried on working during World War II, when the center moved to Altai.It remained a unique international meeting place for children of all ages from all over the former Soviet Union and other countries after the breakup of the U.S.S.R. when already under Ukraine's jurisdiction, but closed in January over a lack of funds.It is currently supervised by the Ukrainian president's property management committee.Artek General Director Boris Novozhilov said in Kiev on January 16 that the center could cease to exist within a year as the government had not provided any funding for the former Soviet recreation camp for three years. On Monday he was hospitalized with heart problems.