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November 30, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Shipping in Kerch straits comes to a halt as tensions between Russia and Ukraine flare
Unconfirmed reports claimed that 35 vessels
have been prevented from traveling through the straits and are waiting at sea. Reports on social media claim that in effect the two Ukrainian ports on the coast of the Sea of Azov at Berdyansk and Mariupol are under blockade. Only vessels headed to Russian ports in the Sea of Azov have been granted permission to pass through the straits, according to the same unconfirmed reports.
A blockage of ports is technically an act of war.
The Kremlin denied it was restricting shipping and said if there was any blockage it was because of bad weather.
Currently the AIS data also show only six vessels in the straits themselves, all registered under Russian flags, which are presumably Russian coast guards preventing anyone from entering the channel.
President Petro Poroshenko went on the air on the evening of November 25 and declared 60 days of martial law that will give him emergency powers to act and deal with the crisis.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna
Rada, greenlighted the introduction of martial law the following day but only for 30 days.
The parliament's motion was backed at an extraordinary session by 276 lawmakers, considerably more than the necessary minimum of 226 votes to pass the measure.
According to Poroshenko’s media office, martial law will be introduced in the Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Kherson regions, as well
as the internal waters of the Azov-Kerch water area.
Poroshenko stressed that the imposition of martial law did not mean mass mobilisation nor would there be an escalation in fighting in the disputed Donbas region.
The Ukrainian armed forces have been put on full combat alert by the decision of the chief of the country’s General Staff, the press service of Ukraine’s defence ministry reported on Monday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has ordered tighter security at railway terminals and stations, airports, seaports, and other infrastructure.
Warships
The incident started on Sunday morning when
the three Ukrainian “warships” entered Russia’s territorial waters and began to carry out “dangerous manoeuvres,” the Russian press reported. The vessels were identified as two small armoured boats, Berdyansk and Nikopol, and tugboat Krasnoperekopsk, which were reportedly sailing from the ports of Odessa to Mariupol.
"This morning at around 7:00 a.m. Moscow Time three ships of Ukraine’s Navy violated Articles
19 and 21 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which define the right of a coastal state to ensure maritime security, crossed the Russian state border and illegally entered
the temporarily closed waters of the Russian territorial sea," an official statement said.
The Russian frigates on patrol in the sea engaged with the Ukrainian ships and there was a collision. Reports on who rammed who vary as both sides are claiming that their ship was rammed by the other.
"The Don coast guard ship [of Russia] rammed our tugboat, and as a result the vessel’s main engine, plating and open railing were damaged and a life float was lost," the Ukrainian Navy said in a statement.