Russia to close Kerch Strait
Russia has announced that it will close the strategic Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov from next week until October.
According to Interfax Ukraine, Russia has announced that it will close the strategic Kerch Strait. The move will effectively block the Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, and will prevent foreign vessels from reaching the two cities.
The closure is seen as a major escalation in tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed “a strong protest” and said the closure was taking place “under the pretext of military exercises”. Ukraine has demanded the Russian Federation “immediately cancel the decision of the illegal closure”.
“Such actions of the Russian Federation are yet another attempt, in violation of the norms and principles of international law, to usurp the sovereign rights of Ukraine as a coastal state, since it is Ukraine that has the right to regulate shipping in these waters of the Black Sea,” the Ukraine Foreign Ministry said in a statement released Thursday.
“Also, this step is a gross violation of the right to freedom of navigation, guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. According to the Convention, the Russian Federation should not impede or interfere with transit passage through the international strait to ports in the Sea of Azov,” the statement continued.
Thousands of Russian troops are massing at the Ukrainian border and the Ukrainian navy confirmed that boats and a Coast Guard ship belonging to Russia had “carried out provocative manoeuvres against small armoured boats of the Ukrainian Navy, which escorted ships in the Sea of Azov.
