Ukraine's Azov ports under pressure, 4 December 2018

What did the days leading up to 4 December 2018 look like for Ukraine, a little over a week after Russian forces seized three of its naval vessels? The picture was one of blockade claims, cancelled summitry and tightened border rules.

The incident itself took place on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait. The Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels that had tried 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 during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Ports and a call to NATO

On 29 November 2018, Ukraine's 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. The same day, President Petro Poroshenko called on NATO to send warships to patrol the Sea of Azov.

A summit meeting cancelled

The affair also reached the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. On 29 November 2018, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was still on. While flying to Argentina, Trump tweeted that, after conferring with his top National Security advisers, he had decided to cancel it. 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 and thought it a good time to do so.

Martial law and the entry ban

On 30 November 2018, following the imposition of martial law, Ukraine banned Russian men aged between 16 and 60 from entering the country. Poroshenko said the measure was meant to prevent the formation of private armies in Ukraine. Russia said it did not plan to retaliate.

NATO's northern flank

Elsewhere in the region, the Belgian Air Component said on Twitter on 29 November 2018 that its F-16s, operating in the Baltic region on NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, had intercepted Russian Flanker jets the day before, allegedly because they had no flight plan.

Domestic note

On 28 November 2018, a Cabinet of Ministers decree returned the buildings of the Pochaiv Lavra to the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve.

By 4 December 2018, the dispute over the Azov Sea remained unresolved: the blockade claims stood, the Trump–Putin meeting had been called off, and Ukraine's entry restrictions on Russian men were in force.