What happened on the western border and in the Kerch Strait
A look back at two developments reported on 25 November 2018 that shaped the following day's public mood in Ukraine.
What was Ukraine dealing with on 26 November 2018? Two developments reported a day earlier, on 25 November 2018, framed the moment: a naval clash near the Kerch Strait and protests at the country's western border.
The first was the incident in the Kerch Strait. As reported at the time, a Russian border-guard ship, the Don, rammed the Ukrainian Navy tug Yani Kapu near the strait. The tug was part of a group of Ukrainian naval boats moving from Odesa to Mariupol. Russian forces then opened fire on the group. Three Ukrainian vessels were seized and 23 sailors were taken prisoner, six of them wounded.
The second was a domestic protest. Owners of cars with foreign registration, known as "eurobliakhary" in Ukrainian, were blocking border crossing points on the western section of Ukraine's border.
The two reports concerned very different matters, one a military confrontation at sea and the other a dispute over vehicles at border crossings. Both were on the public agenda as 26 November 2018 began.
