Standoff in the Black Sea
Neighbours accuse each other of provocations
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated after the neighbours accused each other of provoking an incident at sea, with Moscow closing a vital water route and Ukraine’s leader declaring that he wants to implement martial law in response.
Russia prevented three Ukrainian ships from entering the Kerch Strait, a narrow strip of water linking the Azov and Black seas on Sunday. According to the Ukrainian navy, vessels belonging to Russia’s border service opened fire on the Ukrainian fleet, injuring six sailors, before seizing two of the ships.
Moscow had prevented the ships from entering the strait by placing a large cargo vessel beneath a Russiancontrolled bridge. Russia then closed the strait, which both nations use.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko endorsed the military Cabinet’s proposal, rushed through in Kiev, to install martial law across the country for 60 days. The vote was to be put before Parliament overnight and was expected to sail through.
In Ukraine, martial law grants authorities and the military the powers needed to ensure national security. It could allow Poroshenko, who has been dogged by low ratings and could seek re-election in March, to act more independently than usual.
The mood in Kiev was bellicose. “It is now likely possible that Russia plans further acts of aggression at sea or on the ground. We must be ready for this,” Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Twitter.
Russia said the Ukrainian navy illegally entered its waters. The two artillery boats and a tugboat “unlawfully entered a temporarily closed area of Russia’s territorial sea,” Russia’s border service told the Interfax news agency.
“It is clear that their goal is to create a conflict situation in the region.”
Ukraine disputed this. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Russia acted “aggressively” and “illegally used force against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy”.
A Russian ship rammed the tug- boat, damaging it, the Ukrainian navy added. A bilateral treaty grants both countries the right to use the Azov Sea.
The standoff raises the spectre of further confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
Both nations called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The European Union called on Russia to reopen the Kerch Strait and urged “all to act with utmost restraint to de-escalate the situation immediately”.
The two countries have been at loggerheads since a pro-Moscow Government in Ukraine was toppled more than four years ago, touching off Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine.
Fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops has claimed more than 10,300 lives since 2014, and continued skirmishes result in near-daily casualties.
The Ukrainian ships were on a journey through the Black Sea, having left the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and heading to Mariupol on the Azov Sea coast, the government-controlled Ukrainian city that is closest to the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Since President Vladimir Putin this year opened the new bridge across the Kerch Strait — connecting the Russian mainland to Crimea — Moscow has increased its control of the area.