Ukraine's warships to continue passing through Kerch Strait, defense minister says
Ukrainian Navy ships are going to continue using the Kerch Strait, otherwise Russia will completely occupy the Sea of Azov.
As reported by Censor.NET citing UNIAN, Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak told TV Channel Pryamyi that the country's warships would continue passing through the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
"We have not violated a single clause of any agreement; we've acted exactly the same way as the previous time. But we will not give up our right to pass through the Kerch Strait and our right to be present in the Sea of Azov," he stressed.
The minister says that the next sail will take place when the Navy is ready.
"When we are ready to carry out a new sail to rotate our units, we will have a similar passage in keeping with all international rules and rights. By that time, I think, international pressure on Russia will let them know that they are not fulfilling international obligations," Poltorak said.
If Ukraine's warships stop passing through the Kerch Strait, "this will mean that Russia has fully occupied the Sea of Azov and we will simply lose another territory. We cannot let it happen," he said.
On Nov. 25, Russian border vessels committed aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships that set sail from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. After that, Russian special forces opened fire on the Ukrainian tugboat Yany Kapu, small armored artillery boats Berdiansk and Nikopol in the Kerch Strait and seized them. There were 23 sailors on board the ships, and six of them were wounded.
Russia announced its intention to try detained Ukrainian sailors for allegedly illegal crossing of the Russian state border.
On Nov. 26, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine related to the latest developments in the Black and Azov Seas.
Later on the same day, Ukraine's parliament gave the green light to a presidential decree on the introduction of martial law for 30 days in 10 regions of Ukraine – Vinnytsia region, Luhansk region, Mykolaiv region, Odesa region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Chernihiv region, Kherson region, Donetsk region and Zaporizhia region, as well as the inland waters of the Azov-Kerch water area.
On Nov. 28, the Russian rubberstamp district court of Simferopol city in Crimea arrested 24 Ukrainian sailors, who had been captured by Russian FSB near the Kerch Strait, for two months. They all face six years in prison.
