Home › World › What the return of Ukraine's seized vessels meant
What the return of Ukraine's seized vessels meant
Summary
A look back at the Kerch Strait ships handed back by Russia and the ammunition depot blasts near Balakliia, as reported around 21 November 2019.
What did the days around 21 November 2019 show about the state of the Russia–Ukraine confrontation? Two reports from that week pointed in different directions: one a handover of ships, the other a deadly accident at a military depot.
On 18 November 2019, Russia returned three Ukrainian Navy vessels that it had seized during an incident in the Kerch Strait the previous year. The incident took place on 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. The ships had been attempting 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.
The handover on 18 November 2019 came almost a year after the seizure, closing one chapter of a dispute that had been counted among the sharpest episodes in relations between the two countries.
Three days earlier, on 15 November 2019, a separate event struck inside Ukraine. Near the city of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, isolated explosions occurred at ammunition storage depots. Two servicemen were killed and five more were wounded.
The reports covered very different matters: a diplomatic and naval issue on one side, and a domestic military-safety incident on the other. Together they marked the news picture for Ukraine's armed forces in mid-November 2019, with the return of the vessels recorded on 18 November and the casualties at Balakliia recorded on 15 November.
