Azov ports under blockade claim, with NATO ships requested
A look back at the claims about Berdiansk and Mariupol and the appeal for Western naval patrols that were made in the days before 3 December 2018.
What was happening at Ukraine's Azov Sea ports in the days before 3 December 2018? By 29 November, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol were effectively under blockade, because Russia was refusing to let any Ukrainian vessels leave or enter the Sea of Azov.
On the same date, President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the Sea of Azov.
A wider NATO-Russia backdrop
Also on 29 November, the Belgian Air Component said on Twitter that the previous day Belgian F-16s, flying in the Baltic region for NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets, allegedly because the aircraft had no flight plan.
The two reports came from different regions, but both concerned relations between Russia and NATO members or partners in the final days of November 2018.
