Russia's military opened fire and seized three Ukrainian maritime vessels operating at a profit Sea off the shore of the Crimean Peninsula Sunday, Ukraine's military stated, heightening strains in the debated area.
Ukraine's naval force said Russian drift protect teams boarded two maritime cannons pontoons and a tugboat and grabbed the vessels. The naval force likewise said that two team individuals were injured, however their conditions were not promptly known.
Prior Sunday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged allegations over another occurrence including a similar three vessels. The episode started after the Ukrainian naval force asserted a Russian drift protect vessel smashed the tugboat, which was escorting the ordnance water crafts from Odessa on the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, by means of the Kerch Strait.
"Russian coast guard vessels ... carried out openly aggressive actions against Ukrainian navy ships," the Ukrainian navy's statement said. It said the Russian ship damaged the tugboat's engine, hull, side railing and a lifeboat.
The statement added that Russia had been informed in advance about the planned journey.
Russia then blocked off the strait.
The Kerch
Strait is the only passage into the Sea of Azov beyond it. The strait is
crossed by the recently completed Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to Russia.
Transit under the bridge has been blocked by a tanker ship, and dozens of cargo
ships awaiting passage are stuck.
Russia has
not given any indication of how long it will keep the strait blocked off, but a
long-term closure to civilian traffic would amount to an economic blockade of
Ukrainian cities on the Azov coast. In addition, Russia's Black Sea Fleet
greatly outmatches the Ukrainian navy.
Ukrainian
cities on the Sea of Azov include strategically vital centers such as Mariupol
-- the closest government-controlled city to Donetsk and Luhansk, the breakaway
regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
Russia's
Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, said in a statement Sunday night
that "there is irrefutable evidence that Kiev prepared and orchestrated
provocations ... in the Black Sea. These materials will soon be made
public."
Russian
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook that the incident
was characteristic of Ukrainian behavior: provoke, pressure and blame for
aggression.
Though a
2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial
waters, Russia has been asserting greater control over the passage since 2015.
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