What did Kyiv do after the Kerch Strait clash?
A look back at 4 December 2018 and the days before it, when Ukraine's response to the seizure of its vessels shaped politics and diplomacy.
What was the political climate in Ukraine on 4 December 2018? It was set by the Kerch Strait incident of 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. They had been trying to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol. It was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Ports under pressure
By 29 November 2018, 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. The same day, President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the Sea of Azov.
Martial law and the entry ban
On 30 November 2018, following the imposition of martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country. Poroshenko said the measure was meant to prevent the formation of "private armies" in Ukraine. Russia said it did not plan to retaliate.
Diplomacy at the G20
The dispute reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. While flying to Argentina, US President Donald Trump tweeted on 29 November 2018 that he had cancelled his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said it was not a good time, since Russia had not returned the ships and sailors to Ukraine. Less than an hour earlier, Trump had said he would probably meet Putin and believed it was a good time to do so. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that same week that the meeting was still on.
Wider tensions
Other signs of strain between Russia and NATO appeared in the same days. The Belgian Air Component reported on 29 November 2018 that Belgian F-16s, flying in the Baltic region on NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets, allegedly because they had no flight plan.
At home, the government also dealt with a separate matter. On 28 November 2018, a Cabinet of Ministers decree returned the buildings of the Pochaiv Lavra to the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve.
Taken together, the reports from late November 2018 show a Ukrainian leadership responding on several fronts: through domestic measures under martial law, by appealing to NATO, and through the diplomacy surrounding the G20.
