Russia returned three seized Ukrainian Navy vessels, reported on 18 November 2019
A look back at the handover of ships captured in the Kerch Strait a year earlier.
What did it mean when Russia handed back three Ukrainian Navy vessels? As reported on 18 November 2019, Russia returned the ships, which it had seized during an incident in the Kerch Strait the previous year. This retrospective looks at 19 November 2019, the day after that report, when the return was the latest development in the dispute.
The vessels had been captured on 25 November 2018. On that day, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels. They had tried to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the strait, on their way to the port of Mariupol.
The 2018 incident was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War. The return of the ships, almost a year after the seizure, was reported under the heading of Russia–Ukraine relations and the wider Ukrainian crisis.
