OREANDA-NEWS   The vast majority of Russians support the actions of Russian border guards who detained Ukrainian boats for violating the Russian border during the passage through the Kerch Strait. This is evidenced by published on Wednesday, the data of the all-Russian survey conducted by the all-Russian center for the study of public opinion (VTSIOM).

93% of respondents said that they consider the actions of border guards to be correct. At the same time, 79% tend to think that the incident was a planned provocation by the Ukrainian authorities.

30% of respondents believe that the aim of the provocation was the desire of President Petro Poroshenko to hold power before the upcoming presidential elections in the country on March, 31. One in five believes that the provocation was committed specifically to start a war between Russia and Ukraine or to create another reason to accuse Russia of aggression (17%)

Meanwhile, in General, Russians expect that in the future Russia and Ukraine will restore friendly, allied relations (43%) or at least normalize them (34%). The view that relations between the two countries will deteriorate is shared by 16% of respondents.

"Views on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have been formed for a long time and do not change regardless of how the situation in our economy and social sphere develops," said Valery Fedorov, General Director of VTSIOM, commenting on the survey data.

The initiative all-Russian survey of VTSIOM was conducted on November 27, 2018. The survey involved 1,600 respondents aged 18 and over.

On November 25, three ships of the naval forces of Ukraine violated the current rules of passage from the Black sea to the Sea of Azov in the Kerch Strait. For legal requirements of boats of the border service of FSB of the Russian Federation and the Russian Black Sea fleet to stop the ships did not respond and continued driving. Weapons were used to forcibly stop them. Three soldiers of the Ukrainian Navy were slightly injured and received medical care. The ships are delayed. Upon violation of the state border of the Russian Federation, a criminal case was opened, 24 Ukrainian sailors were arrested by the court for two months.