What did Russia's return of three Ukrainian vessels mean?
A look back at the handover of Ukrainian Navy ships seized in the Kerch Strait, reported days before 21 November 2019.
What happened to the three Ukrainian Navy vessels seized in the Kerch Strait? By 21 November 2019, the question had a partial answer: as reported on 18 November 2019, Russia had returned the three ships it took during the incident there the previous year.
The vessels were captured on 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and seized them. They had been attempting to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the strait, on their way to the port of Mariupol.
The incident was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War, according to the later background account. The return of the ships, reported on 18 November 2019, closed one visible chapter of that episode, almost a year after the seizure.
