Kerch Strait aftermath: what 28 November 2018 followed

What did the Kerch Strait crisis look like on 28 November 2018, three days after it began? By then the immediate confrontation had given way to a political and diplomatic aftermath, the shape of which had been set by decisions taken on 26 November.

The incident itself occurred on 25 November 2018. Ukrainian Navy vessels tried to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three of them. According to the background to these events, it was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Three decisions on 26 November

The first concerned the strait itself. On 26 November the Kerch Strait was re-opened to commercial shipping, so the passage that had been at the centre of the confrontation returned to normal commercial use.

The second was diplomatic. Also on 26 November, Russia asked for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The request put the dispute before the international body within a day of the clash.

The third was domestic. On the same day the Verkhovna Rada approved the introduction of martial law in 10 oblasts of Ukraine for 30 days. That time limit meant the measure was framed as temporary from the start.

Reading the moment

By 28 November, then, the picture was mixed. Commercial traffic had resumed, the matter had been taken to the Security Council at Russia's request, and Ukraine had moved onto a legal footing that allowed martial law in a defined group of regions. The reported facts do not say what the Security Council meeting produced or how martial law was applied, so those questions belong to later reporting rather than to this date.

What the sequence does show is how quickly the incident moved from a naval clash to institutional responses: shipping, diplomacy and national law all reacted within a day of the event.