Ukraine calls on Nato to assist in ongoing skirmish with Russia

The Ukrainian president has urged Nato to deploy naval ships to the Sea of Azov, a proposal sharply criticised by Russia as a provocation that could further inflame tensions between the two countries.

In an interview in the German daily Bild, published yesterday, president Petro Poroshenko laid out his hope that Nato would “relocate naval ships to the Sea of Azov in order to assist Ukraine and provide security” against the expansionist ambitions of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

His call follows the weekend incident in which the Russian coast guard fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels and their crews. Russia claimed the Ukrainian vessels had failed to obtain permission to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait between Russia’s mainland and the Crimean Peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine insisted that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules.

“Putin wants nothing less but to occupy the sea,” Poroshenko said. “The only language he understands is the unity of the western world.”

Putin, for his part, criticised the west for what he described as connivance with Ukraine’s “provocation”.

“The authorities in Kiev are successfully selling antirussian sentiments as they have nothing else left to sell,” he said. “They can get away with whatever they do. If they want to eat babies for breakfast today, they will likely serve them too.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she plans to press Putin at this weekend’s G-20 summit in Argentina to urge the release of the ships and crews. “We can only resolve this in talks with one another because there is no military solution,” she said.

Nato said that it already has a strong presence in the Black Sea region. The alliance’s spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said Nato ships routinely patrol and exercise in the Black Sea, and that they have spent 120 days there this year compared to 80 in 2017.

She noted that several Nato allies conduct air policing and reconnaissance flights in the region, adding that members Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey border the Black Sea and have their own military equipment deployed.

“There is already a lot of Nato in the Black Sea, and we will continue to assess our presence in the region,” Lungescu said.

While Nato condemned the Russian action, the alliance is not expected to send ships into the Sea of Azov, a deployment that could trigger a confrontation with Russia. A 2003 treaty between Russia and Ukraine stipulates that permission from both countries is required for warships from others to enter the internal sea.