The Kremlin considers the Azov and Black seas in Ukraine’s south as the important staging ground for its continuous expansion in Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council secretary said on Aug. 10 during his visit to Ukraine’s army positions near Mariupol, an industrial seaport city of nearly 500,000 people on the coast of the Azov Sea, 800 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
During his visit, Turchynov inspected the readiness of Ukrainian servicemen and coast guard patrols to confront possible Russia’s aggression from the Azov Sea.
As the Kyiv Post reported on Aug.3, despite Mariupol being the scene of fighting and rocket attacks during the early phase of Russia’s ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, life has generally been peaceful since 2015.
But since May, when Russia opened the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to the Kremlin-occupied Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, Russian coast guard members subordinate to the Kremlin’s FSB security service — the successor to the Soviet-era KGB — have started stopping trade ships in the Azov Sea.
The pretext is to keep the bridge and Russian coast secure. Along with that Russian military power boats sometimes come within six kilometers to Ukraine’s coast.
As of Aug. 10, the FSB has detained more than 148 trade ships for six to up to 82 hours in the Azov Sea.
Turchynov described Russia’s actions in the Azov Sea as the brutal violation of the international maritime law.
“What we observe is the attempts of Russia to start the economic and military blockade of the Azov Sea,” Turchynov said.
Turchynov added that he considered Ukraine’s south and especially Mariupol’s direction as one of the most threatening targets of the possible next wave of Russia’s war against Ukraine, that has already killed more than 10,000 people and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes since 2014.
Despite the fact that Russia started growing its military presence in May, two months after Ukraine arrested the Ukrainian registered fishing vessel the Nord from Crimea and its crew for illegally swimming under the Russian flag and poaching, there were no Ukraine’s Navy forces constantly present in the Azov Sea.
And only some three months after Turchynov urged for the possible creation of the spare Navy speedboat squad in the Azov Sea to strengthen Ukraine’s poorly equipped coast guards, who told the Kyiv Post they can only watch the Russian military vessels wrongdoing in the Azov Sea.
