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Drama in the Kerch Strait: teasing the Russian bear

By in Geopolitics on .

Drama in the Kerch Strait: teasing the Russian bear

The West is complaining about Russian ‘aggression’ but the incident looks more like a cheap ploy by a desperate Ukrainian president and US conservatives keen to undermine Trump’s next pow-wow with Putin

Ukrainian nationalists hold flares during a rally outside parliament on Monday to demand that Kiev break its agreement with Russia on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait and impose martial law in the country. The previous day Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships by force in a strait near Moscow-annexed Crimea. Photo: AFP/ STR / NurPhoto

Ukrainian nationalists hold flares during a rally outside parliament on Monday to demand that Kiev break its agreement with Russia on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait and impose martial law in the country. The previous day Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships by force in a strait near Moscow-annexed Crimea. Photo: AFP/ STR / NurPhoto

When the Ukrainian navy sent a tugboat and two small gunboats on Sunday to force their way through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov, it knew in advance the Russian response would be swift and merciless. 

After all, Kiev was entering waters claimed by Russia with military vessels without clarifying their intent. 

The intent, though, was clear; to raise the stakes in the militarization of the Sea of Azov.

The Kerch Strait connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. To reach Mariupol, a key city in the Sea of Azov very close to the dangerous dividing line between Ukraine’s army and the pro-Russian militias in Donbass, the Ukrainian navy needs to go through the Kerch.

Yet since Russia retook control of Crimea via a 2014 referendum, the waters around Kerch are de facto Russian territorial waters.

Kiev announced this past summer it would build a naval base in the Sea of Azov by the end of 2018. That’s an absolute red line for Moscow. Kiev may have to trade access to Mariupol, which, incidentally, also trades closely with the People’s Republic of Donetsk. But forget about military access. 

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