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Trump weighs cancelling Putin meeting over Kerch clash
Summary
A look back at 27 November 2018, when the fallout from the Kerch Strait incident reached planning for the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
What did the clash in the Kerch Strait mean for diplomacy among the great powers? On 27 November 2018, one answer emerged: U.S. President Donald Trump said he might cancel his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, due later that week, because of Russia's maritime clash with Ukraine.
The incident behind the warning
The clash had taken place two days earlier, on 25 November 2018. Russia's Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels as they tried to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, 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.
Trump's remark on 27 November 2018 tied the planned bilateral meeting directly to that event. The meeting had been scheduled for the Buenos Aires gathering, and the possibility of its cancellation put the clash at the centre of Russia–United States relations.
A separate legal blow for Moscow
On the previous day, 26 November 2018, an international tribunal in Paris ruled that Russia must pay 1.3 billion dollars to the Ukrainian state-owned bank Oshchadbank. The ruling was a separate matter from the strait incident, but it added to a busy stretch of events involving Russia and Ukraine.
For Kyiv, the two days brought attention to the Kerch Strait seizure from Washington and a financial award from a Paris tribunal.
