Kerch Strait fallout: what followed the 25 November clash
A retrospective on the diplomatic and security repercussions of the Kerch Strait incident in the days before 3 December 2018.
What was the state of play on 3 December 2018, little more than a week after Russian forces fired on and seized Ukrainian vessels near the Kerch Strait? The incident of 25 November 2018 had set off a run of diplomatic and security moves that were still unfolding.
The Ukrainian Navy vessels had been trying to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired on and captured them. It was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Ports under pressure
On 29 November 2018, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol were effectively under blockade, because Russia was not letting any Ukrainian vessels enter or leave the Sea of Azov. President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the sea.
Martial law and the entry ban
On 30 November 2018, Ukraine barred Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country following the imposition of martial law. Poroshenko said the measure was meant to prevent the formation of "private armies" in Ukraine. Russia said it did not plan to retaliate.
A summit meeting cancelled
The clash also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 27 November 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump said he might cancel his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the maritime confrontation. On 29 November 2018, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting was still on. While flying to Argentina, Trump then tweeted that he had cancelled it after conferring with his top National Security advisers, saying it was not a good time since Russia had not returned the ships and sailors to Ukraine. Less than an hour earlier, he had said he would probably meet Putin.
Wider tension
Elsewhere, on 29 November 2018 the Belgian Air Component reported that Belgian F-16s, flying in the Baltic region on NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets the previous day, allegedly because they had no flight plan.
By 3 December 2018, the seizure in the Kerch Strait had thus produced a blockade claim over Ukraine's Azov ports, a new entry restriction under martial law and a cancelled leaders' meeting.
