What Kyiv faced on 4 December 2018 after the Kerch Strait clash
A look back at the diplomatic and security pressures that surrounded Ukraine on 4 December 2018, in the days after the seizure of its naval vessels.
How did Ukraine stand on 4 December 2018, little more than a week after Russian forces fired upon and captured three of its navy vessels? The Kerch Strait incident of 25 November 2018 had set the tone for everything that followed, and the days before the covered date show a country dealing with its consequences on several fronts.
The incident occurred when the vessels tried to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol. The Russian Federal Security Service coast guard opened fire and seized them. As the background to these events notes, it was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Ports under pressure
On 29 November 2018, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol were effectively under blockade, because Russia was refusing to let any Ukrainian vessels enter or leave the Sea of Azov. President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the sea.
Martial law and entry restrictions
On 30 November 2018, Ukraine banned Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country, following the imposition of martial law. Mr Poroshenko said the measure was meant to prevent the formation of what he called private armies in Ukraine. Russia said it did not plan to retaliate.
Diplomatic fallout
The affair also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 29 November 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he was cancelling a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the time was not right because Russia had not returned the ships and sailors to Ukraine. Less than an hour earlier he had said he would probably meet Mr Putin and that it was a good time to do so. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had said earlier that the meeting was still on.
Other signals
Elsewhere, Russia–NATO tensions were visible in the air. The Belgian Air Component reported on 29 November 2018 that its F-16s, operating 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, a separate matter drew attention on 28 November 2018: a Cabinet of Ministers decree returned the structures of the Pochaiv Lavra to the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve.
Taken together, the reports from the days before 4 December 2018 describe a Ukraine under martial law, with its Azov ports constrained, appealing to allies, and watching its naval confrontation with Russia shape summit diplomacy.
