What did Kyiv's blockaded Azov ports look like by 3 December 2018?

How far had the Kerch Strait confrontation spread by 3 December 2018? In the week leading up to that date, a naval clash had turned into a matter of ports, martial law and summit diplomacy.

The incident itself took place on 25 November 2018. Russia's Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels that were trying to pass 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, 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 day, President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the Sea of Azov.

Summit consequences

The clash also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 27 November, U.S. President Donald Trump said he might cancel his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the maritime clash. On 29 November, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting was still on. While flying to Argentina, Trump first said he would probably meet Putin and thought it a good time to do so. Less than an hour later he announced on Twitter that he had cancelled, 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.

Measures at home

Martial law had been imposed in Ukraine, and on 30 November Ukraine banned Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country. Poroshenko said the ban was meant to prevent the formation of "private armies" in Ukraine. Russia said it did not plan to retaliate.

Elsewhere in the region, NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission featured in the news: the Belgian Air Component reported on 29 November that its F-16s had intercepted Russian Flanker jets the previous day, allegedly because they had no flight plan.

Not all government business was about the standoff. On 28 November, a Cabinet of Ministers decree returned the buildings of the Pochaiv Lavra to the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve.

Taken together, the reports from the days before 3 December 2018 show a dispute that had moved from the waters of the Kerch Strait to port operations, entry rules and the agenda of a major summit.