What did Kyiv do after the Kerch Strait seizure?
A look back at the diplomatic and political fallout around Ukraine in the days leading up to 4 December 2018.
What was the state of play in Ukraine's confrontation with Russia on 4 December 2018? The days before it had been dominated by the Kerch Strait incident, and the political reaction had unfolded on several fronts.
The incident occurred on 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
On 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.
Entry ban and summit diplomacy
On 30 November 2018, Ukraine banned 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.
The affair also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 29 November 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, while flying to Argentina, that he had cancelled his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after conferring with his top National Security advisers. He said 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. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that the meeting was still on.
Wider tension with NATO
Military friction extended beyond Ukraine. The Belgian Air Component reported on Twitter on 29 November 2018 that Belgian F-16s, operating in the Baltic region for NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets the previous day, allegedly because they had no flight plan.
A domestic footnote
On 28 November 2018, a Cabinet of Ministers decree returned the buildings of the Pochaiv Lavra to the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve, a separate domestic decision made in the same week.
Taken together, the developments of those days showed a Ukrainian government responding on security, diplomatic and administrative fronts at once.
