![]() ![]() It also stressed that under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, “Russia must neither obstruct nor halt transit through the international strait to ports in the Sea of Azov. Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Thursday criticised the navigation restrictions, which were initially reported without specifics earlier this week, as a “usurpation of the sovereign rights of Ukraine”. The Kerch Strait is also the site of a costly 19-km (12-mile) bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia that Moscow opened in 2018. Ukraine had been free to navigate the Kerch Strait along with Russia until 2014, when Moscow claimed full control of the waterway after annexing Crimea. The Kerch Strait became a scene of confrontation in 2018 after Russia seized three Ukrainian ships there over alleged violations of its territorial waters. One of the areas affected by Russia’s restrictions is located near the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov and is of crucial importance for the export of grain and steel from Ukraine. The US military has asked the Department of State to notify the Turkish government about its intent to sail a warship in the Black Sea, according to media reports.The possible move comes in response to a naval incident in the Kerch Strait on November 25 when three Ukrainian Navy ships entered Russia. The official said that the restrictions would increase tensions as Russia was “taking unilateral measures on an international space”. The move contradicts norms of free maritime passage and international law and adds to tensions around “the military buildup on the other side of the Russian border with Ukraine”, the official told the AFP news agency. The restrictions will affect the western tip of Crimea, the peninsula’s southern coastline from Sevastopol to Hurzuf, and a “rectangle” off the Kerch peninsula near the Opuksky Nature Reserve.Ī senior EU official described the move as a “highly worrying development”. ![]()
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