Ukraine-Russia conflict : Merkel says "no military solution"

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday there is "no military solution" to the Ukraine conflict after President Petro Poroshenko asked for NATO naval support in Ukraine's standoff with Russia.

Though Ukraine is not a NATO member, it is a NATO partner country, meaning they co-operate on some political and security issues.

Blaming Russia for the tensions, Merkel said: "We ask the Ukrainian side too to be sensible because we know that we can only solve things through being reasonable and through dialogue because there is no military solution to these disputes".

On Sunday, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian ships and seized their crews in the Kerch Strait.

Merkel said the crisis was "entirely the doing of the Russian president".

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Poroshenko of creating the naval "provocation" to boost his ratings ahead of 2019 elections.

President Poroshenko has implemented martial law across Ukraine's border regions for 30 days in response to the crisis.

Meanwhile, Russian state media report that Moscow has delivered a battalion of S-400 surface-to-air missiles to north Crimea, and also plans to build a new missile early-warning radar station there.

Further speaking alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman at a business forum in Berlin, Merkel promised to hold talks with Putin at the forthcoming G20 summit.

"I want the Ukrainian soldiers released," she said. "We must do everything to help places like Mariupol, which depends upon access to the sea.

"We can't allow this city to just be cut off, thus indirectly isolating further parts of Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian side has asked us to act wisely... there is no military solution to these problems, we have to emphasise that."