Ukrainians offered the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela a provocation against the Russian Federation
Ukraine should officially recognize the self-proclaimed President of Venezuela Juan Jugaido, and then contact him to ask for the arrest of the Russian plane, which the day before arrived at the capital Caracas airport, and had previously visited Crimea in circumvention of Ukrainian sanctions.
Former Ukrainian Consul in Istanbul Bohdan Yaremenko wrote about this in his blog, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Yaremenko refers to data from his Maidan of Foreign Affairs foundation, which tracks the movement of ships and aircraft violating Ukrainian sanctions on Crimea.
The day before, a Boeing 500-777Q2(ER) capable of accommodating 8 people with tail number VP-BJG of Nordwind Airlines, which flew to Crimea in September 2018 in circumvention of sanctions, went to Venezuela for an undeclared purpose of visit.
Yaremenko writes that Ukraine could emphasize that this aircraft is on the "blacklist" and demand its seizure. It could also ask Western countries to revoke Russia's civil aircraft leasing rights in order to halt air travel within the country, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Russia is a huge country that does not have its own civil aviation or aircraft manufacturing. In fact, Russia does not even buy all imported aircraft (Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, etc.), but leases them from Western companies. To deprive Russia of these aircraft by refusing leasing, maintenance, certification, and refusing to accept them outside Russia would deal a serious blow to this area. We must strike at weak points,” writes Yaremenko.
He emphasizes that today Ukraine can get “hype” from the coup in Venezuela and present Russia’s support for legitimate President Nicolas Maduro as an obstacle to democracy.
“We should not bashfully express solidarity with the Venezuelan parliament, but recognize President Juan Guaidó as a legitimate leader and make a request to detain and arrest the offending aircraft (however, the new government of Venezuela will also need planes). And let this not happen now. Ukraine should take this opportunity to disseminate as much information as possible about the connection between the occupation of Crimea and Russia’s subversive anti-democratic special operations in Venezuela. This is a topic for consultation with both the Americans and Europeans, who stubbornly ignore the topic of expanding sanctions against the Russian Federation,” adds the retired Ukrainian diplomat.
Ukrainians proposed a provocation against Russia to the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela.