In this file photo taken and distributed by Ukrainian Navy Press Service, two Ukrainian Navy ships are seen near Crimea. Photos / AP
In this file photo taken and distributed by Ukrainian Navy Press Service, two Ukrainian Navy ships are seen near Crimea. Photos / AP
The Ukrainian Navy said today that Russia's coast guard opened fire on Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea following a tense standoff off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, wounding two crew members.
Russia didn't immediately comment on the claims.
Ukraine's Navy said that two of its vessels were struck and that Russian coast guard crews boarded them and a tugboat and seized them.
There have been growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has steadily worked to increase its zone of control around the peninsula.
Earlier, Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over another incident involving the same three vessels, prompting Moscow to block passage through the Kerch Strait.
The Ukrainian vessels apparently wanted to travel through the strait to other ports in Ukraine, and Ukrainian authorities said they had given advance notice to the Russians.
Russia's coast guard said that the three Ukrainian vessels made an unauthorised crossing through Russian territorial waters, while Ukraine alleged that one of its boats was rammed by a Russian coast guard vessel.
The Kerch Strait is a narrow body of water nestled between Crimea and the Russian mainland.
The incident began after the Ukrainian Navy claimed a Russian coast guard vessel rammed one of its tugboats, which was traveling with two Ukrainian Navy artillery boats from Odessa on the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, via the Kerch Strait.
"Russian coast guard vessels ... carried out openly aggressive actions against Ukrainian navy ships," the Ukrainian Navy statement said. It said a Russian coast guard 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.
A ship under the the Kerch bridge blocks the passage to the Kerch Strait near Kerch, Crimea.
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. And Russia's Black Sea Fleet greatly outmatches the Ukrainian Navy.
Ukrainian cities on the Sea of Azov include strategically vital centres 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, told Russian news agencies after the first incident that the Ukrainian ships held their course and violated Russian territorial waters. The FSB accused the Ukrainian Navy of staging a provocation against Russia.
"Their goal is clear," an FSB statement said, "to create a conflict situation in the region." The statement didn't mention ramming a Ukrainian tugboat.
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.
Worrying escalation in the Sea of Azov: Russian naval vessels "carried out openly aggressive actions against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy" today, including "ramming" a Ukrainian tugboat, reports Ukrainian Navy. My August dispatch for important context: https://t.co/WeyrEm5Yndpic.twitter.com/lYeMrAI181
Ukrainian President Poroshenko convening emergency military meeting amid naval clashes with Russia as Ukrainian ships transit from Odessa on the Black Sea to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait. https://t.co/oAeyUx4uis - @AP
my guess: while Trump is distracted by fallout from midterms and UK is distracted by Brexit, good time to create instability in Ukraine in advance of elections
