MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has a slim chance to stay in office, according to Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
"The Ukrainian Navy men are a bargaining chip in the political game of President Poroshenko and his associates who are ready to commit any crime in their pursuit of a higher chance to stay in power. As you know, this chance is slim under the current circumstances," Patrushev told the weekly Argumenty i Fakty in an interview.
Kyiv is unable to accommodate even basic needs of a majority of the Ukrainian population that has been driven to poverty, he said.
"Production has practically been ruined in the country, millions of Ukrainians have to work abroad, and most of those staying [in the country] are paid meager salaries with months-long delays," Patrushev said.
Businesses associated with the authorities in Kyiv are increasingly involved in the embezzlement of public funds, illegal selling of weapons, and frauds. It was also noted at the recent meeting of secretaries of the security councils of CIS member states that the sanitary-epidemiological situation had been deteriorating in Ukraine, Patrushev said.
"The Soviet sanitary-epidemiological system has been fully replaced with U.S.-run biological laboratories. As a result, Ukraine has a poliomyelitis problem, and a tuberculosis, diphtheria, and measles emergency that endangers neighboring countries," he said.
In the evening of November 26, the Verkhovna Rada enforced President Petro Poroshenko's order that declared 30-day martial law in ten regions of the country (including the Kherson region bordering Crimea) and internal waters of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Poroshenko can declare partial mobilization if necessary.
The decision followed the incident in the Kerch Strait. On November 25, Russian border guards had to fire their weapons to detain three ships of the Ukrainian Navy - the Yany Kapu tugboat and two armored artillery boats Berdyansk and Nikopol - headed from Odesa in the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. The Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case under Part 3, Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal crossing of the state border).
Twenty-four Ukrainian Navy men were detained, including three injured. The injured have been taken to a hospital in Kerch, and the detainees are being questioned by investigators.