Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced it will close the waters leading to the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, for warships and non-commercial vessels of other countries from April 24 until October.
All Ukrainian non-commercial and military vessels will be banned from passage through the Kerch Strait for six months. Commercial vessels won’t be prohibited.
The ban came under the pretext of military drills, as Russia continues to mass troops and weapons near the Ukrainian border and in Crimea. Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine is now the largest it’s ever been since 2014 when Russia invaded Donbas and illegally began its occupation of the Crimean peninsula which continues today.
Read more: Will Ukraine be able to survive Russian attack?
“Russia has intensified its escalation at sea,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “The behavior of the Russian side indicates the absence of any intention on its part to refuse to continue the aggression against Ukraine using military and hybrid methods.”
Non-commercial vessels, which were banned from passage through the area, include rescue and research ships. This means Ukraine won’t be able to conduct search and rescue operations, as well as navigational and hydrographic support of navigation in that region.
“This is just another breach of Ukraine’s maritime rights,” Bohdan Ustymenko, head of the Ukrainian Institute for Security and Law of the Sea, told the Kyiv Post.
Ukraine has a coast guard base in Mariupol, a city on the north coast of the Sea of Azov.
“Russia is effectively blocking communication between Ukrainian warships between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov,” Ustymenko said.
A map of the area which was closed off to transit for non-Russian military and non-commercial vessels. The screenshot of the map was posted on Facebook by Andrii Klymenko, chief editor of the Black Sea News website.
In 2003, Ukraine and Russia signed a Treaty on Cooperation for the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, agreeing to share the waters in that region. The treaty allowed all Ukrainian and Russian vessels to pass through the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, and enter their destination ports.
By closing the waters around the Kerch Strait, Russia breached that agreement. It also violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which grants all ships the right to pass through strategic straits, such as the Kerch Strait.
“According to the Convention, the Russian Federation must not obstruct or impede transit through the international strait to ports in the Sea of Azov,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.
“We need to establish maritime boundaries according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and declare to the whole world that the Azov Treaty is no longer valid,” Ustymenko told the Kyiv Post.
