Moscow show trial for Ukrainian sailors as tensions escalate over Crimea’s waters
Crisis enters a new stage as Russia tightens control of shipping lanes and limits access to Azov Sea
THE transfer of two dozen captured Ukrainian sailors from Crimea to Moscow has set the stage for the next phase of the Russia-Ukraine standoff: a highprofile show trial with inescapable geopolitical undertones.
Three Ukranian navy ships were fired upon and seized last Sunday as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait between Crimea and Russia, ratcheting up the crisis that began when Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
Claiming that Russia was gathering an invasion force on its borders, near areas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, Ukraine declared martial law in 10 regions and on Friday banned Russian men aged 16 to 60 from entering the country.
The 24 sailors were moved to pretrial detention in the Russian capital the same day, hours after Donald Trump cancelled a G20 meeting with Vladimir Putin, ostensibly over their plight.
The sailors face up to six years in prison on charges of violating Russia’s borders, but since two of the men are members of Ukraine’s security service, their lawyers fear espionage charges could be levelled against them.
“There’s no reason to hope for a fair trial,” Mammet Mambetov, one of several Crimean Tatar defence lawyers in the case, told The Sunday Telegraph.
Last Sunday’s escalation in the protracted conflict came as the Ukrainian navy vessels attempted to pass under Russia’s new Crimea Bridge that links mainland Russia with the annexed peninsula.
When The Telegraph visited the shallow, narrow strait this week, more than 60 large ships were waiting south of the strait, with traffic suspended amid winds of 100ft per sec.
Since the bridge was opened by Mr Putin in May, ships must now pass through the 744ft long and 115ft tall arch of the bridge, helping Moscow tighten its control of a key shipping lane and the economic lifeline to eastern Ukraine.
Vessels typically wait to cross in caravans that alternate coming from the north and the south. Russian regulations say each ship should notify Kerch port 72 hours before it arrives and wait for a local pilot to come on board to guide it through, a port safety inspector told The Telegraph.
Border guard ships run by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have been reportedly increasing their random checks, piling further pressure on Kerch shipping.
The Ukrainian navy has claimed its ships contacted the Kerch port on Sunday, the same day they intended to pass. But even if the sailors fell afoul of port regulations, the charges against them appear to be dubious given that Ukraine and Russia agreed to share the Azov Sea in a 2004 treaty.
In reality, tensions have long been building. Ukrainian border forces detained the Crimea-registered fishing boat Nord in the Azov Sea in March, after which Russian border guards seized a Ukrainian fishing vessel.
Then in September, Russian fighter jets and 10 ships accompanied two Ukrainian military vessels as they made a tense passage of the Kerch Strait with a Russian pilot on board, bound for Berdyansk, where Ukraine has announced plans to create a naval base.
The thought of Nato ships attempting to visit a new Ukrainian base in the Azov Sea, as Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, has suggested, is the stuff of nightmares for the Kremlin.
Calls by Ukrainian nationalists to blow up the £2.7 billion Crimean Bridge have also been reported widely in the Russian media.
“We are vigilant because it’s a unique bridge,” the Kerch safety inspector told The Telegraph when asked if authorities were now checking vessels more closely. “How can we let them destroy such a gem?”
But Kiev’s transport minister argued this week that the checks and long waiting times amounted to an economic “blockade” against ports in the Azov Sea to “drive Ukraine out of our own territory”.
He said Russian authorities were stopping 35 ships coming to or leaving Mariupol and Berdyansk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has estimated the financial losses due to shipping limitations at $20-40million (£15-30m) annually.
However, few experts see the Kerch incident as a step toward the “full-scale war with Russia” that Mr Poroshenko has been warning about.
“This is not a prelude to an armoured thrust toward Mariupol, this is about Russia asserting that Crimea is ours,” Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russia’s security services, said. “If Crimea is ours, then the corollary is that Azov is ours.” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, urged Moscow to let Ukrainian vessels enter the Sea of Azov yesterday as Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia agreed to talks over the standoff in the Kerch Strait after meeting Mr Putin at the G20.
“All escalations must be avoided,” Mrs Merkel told reporters after meeting the Russian president on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. “The freedom of shipping traffic in the Sea of Azov … must be ensured.”
Amnesty International said that Russia’s treatment of the detained sailors amounted to “incommunicado detention”, since their location has been unknown and they haven’t had contact with lawyers since midweek.
Although the captives have unexpectedly become a political liability with Mr Trump, they also give Mr Putin a bargaining chip abroad and a way to stir up patriotic fervour at home, where his ratings have been slipping.
At the same time, Mr Poroshenko, Ukraine’s unpopular leader, has relished the chance to once again portray himself as a wartime president.