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What did Russia's return of Ukrainian ships mean?
Summary
A look back at the handover of three seized Ukrainian Navy vessels, reported on 18 November 2019, days before the covered date.
What had changed in the Kerch Strait dispute by 22 November 2019? Days earlier, 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 seizure dated from 25 November 2018. On that day, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured the three vessels as they attempted to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol.
The incident was the first time that Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War. The return of the ships, reported as part of developments in Russia–Ukraine relations amid the Ukrainian crisis, closed one chapter of that episode roughly a year after the vessels were taken.
By 22 November 2019, the vessels were back in Ukrainian hands, a little more than a year after the strait confrontation.
