A senior security official says Ukraine will expel Russian security agents from the tense Black Sea naval base that Russia is renting from Ukraine.
National security agency head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said that 19 Russian agents stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol will have to leave the country in December. In remarks confirmed by his press service Wednesday, he said the agents are engaged in counterintelligence activity and that Ukraine is capable of guaranteeing security at the base on its own.
The move is part of a struggle between Ukraine and Russia over the Sevastopol base where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been stationed since czarist times.
Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and says it will evict the Russian forces when the current lease runs out in 2017.
