Home › Opinion › Did Kyiv's entry ban answer the Azov crisis?
Did Kyiv's entry ban answer the Azov crisis?
Summary
A look back at 30 November 2018, when Ukraine barred Russian men of fighting age while the Sea of Azov standoff pulled in NATO and the G20.
What did Ukraine hope to achieve on 30 November 2018, when it barred Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country? The ban followed the imposition of martial law, and President Petro Poroshenko said its purpose was to prevent the formation of "private armies" in Ukraine. Russia responded that it did not plan to retaliate.
The backdrop in the Azov
The measure came days after the Kerch Strait incident of 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. They had been trying to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol. It was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
By 29 November, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol were effectively under blockade, because Russia was refusing to let any Ukrainian vessels enter or leave the Sea of Azov. Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the sea.
Diplomacy follows
The crisis also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 29 November, while flying to Argentina, US President Donald Trump tweeted that he had cancelled his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said it was not a good time, since Russia had not returned the ships and sailors to Ukraine. Less than an hour earlier, he had said he would probably meet Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that day that the meeting was still on.
Separately, the Belgian Air Component reported on 29 November that its F-16s, flying in the Baltic region on NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets, allegedly because they had no flight plan.
Reading the entry ban
The ban was a domestic security step aimed at a specific fear: armed groups forming inside Ukraine. Moscow's decision not to retaliate meant it brought no immediate counter-measure, according to Russia's own statement. The wider picture on 30 November was a blockade of two ports, an appeal for NATO ships and a cancelled summit meeting, all tied to the unreturned vessels and sailors.
