 The President decides on the declaration of martial law and then Verkhovna Rada must approve it.On 26 November 2018, lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada overwhelmingly backed President Petro Poroshenko's imposition of martial law along Ukraine's coastal regions and those bordering the Russian Federation and Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway state of Moldova which has Russian troops stationed in its territory, in response to the firing upon and seizure of Ukrainian naval ships by Russia near the Crimean Peninsula a day earlier.A total of 276 lawmakers in Kiev backed the measure, which took effect on 28 November 2018 and will automatically expire in 30 days.