Russians Claim Home Port of Black Sea Fleet : Politics: The legislature’s vote is essentially rhetorical. But Ukrainian official calls move ‘tantamount to a declaration of war.’

The hard-line Russian legislature fired a shot across Ukraine’s bow on Friday by claiming ownership of Sevastopol, home port of the former Soviet navy’s Black Sea fleet.

The unanimous vote was certain to raise tensions between the two most powerful former Soviet republics, which also are sparring over ownership of nuclear weapons.

However, the Russian legislature’s declaration was essentially rhetorical and had no immediate, practical effect. Sevastopol and the rest of Crimea remained under Ukrainian control Friday, and no military effort was made to take it.

The legislature is dominated by former Communists elected before the Soviet collapse. It is far more nationalist and antagonistic toward Ukraine than President Boris N. Yeltsin or Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev, who are unlikely to press the claim to Sevastopol.

Sevastopol lies at the tip of the Crimean Peninsula, which has been part of independent Ukraine since the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denounced Friday’s claim as “interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.” Dmytro Pavlychko, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, called it “tantamount to a declaration of war.”

The vote appeared to be partly in retaliation for the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision last week to claim ownership over former Soviet nuclear weapons on its territory.

The Crimea, historically Russian, was transferred to Ukraine’s jurisdiction in 1954 by Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev. It meant little at the time because both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union.