Home › Politics › Trump questions Putin meeting after Kerch Strait clash
Trump questions Putin meeting after Kerch Strait clash
Summary
A look back at the day Washington signalled doubts over a G20 meeting while Ukraine prepared to enter martial law.
What did the Kerch Strait clash do to diplomacy on 27 November 2018? Within two days of the incident, it had reached the agenda of the Russian and American presidents, and it had pushed Kyiv towards martial law.
On 27 November 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump said he might cancel his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, due later that week. He cited Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine as the reason.
What had happened
The clash took place on 25 November 2018. Russian Federal Security Service coast guard vessels fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. The Ukrainian ships had tried to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, on their way to the port of Mariupol. Later accounts described it as the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The same day, an emergency meeting of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council was convened in response to the Russian blockade of the strait and the seizure of the vessels. Afterwards, President Petro Poroshenko said he would ask the Verkhovna Rada to back a declaration of martial law. The parliament was to hold an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. local time on 26 November.
Martial law approved
On 26 November 2018, the Verkhovna Rada approved the introduction of martial law in 10 oblasts of Ukraine. It was to take effect from 28 November 2018 and last 30 days. The vote came after what Ukrainian lawmakers described as aggression by Russian border guard ships in the Kerch Strait against Ukrainian navy vessels.
A summit in question
By 27 November 2018, then, two tracks were running side by side. In Kyiv, the focus was on the legal and security measures that would begin the next day. In Washington, the clash had become a reason for the U.S. president to publicly weigh whether a face-to-face meeting with Putin should go ahead.
The remark was a conditional one: Trump said he may cancel, not that he had. The G20 summit in Buenos Aires was due to take place later that week, and the scheduled meeting stayed in doubt on that date.
