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Why did Russia return Ukraine's seized vessels?
Summary
A retrospective on the handover of three Ukrainian Navy vessels on 18 November 2019, almost a year after the Kerch Strait incident.
Why did Russia hand back three Ukrainian Navy vessels, and what did the move mean? On 18 November 2019, Russia returned the ships it had seized during an incident in the Kerch Strait the previous year.
The incident behind the handover
The vessels were captured on 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and seized three Ukrainian Navy ships. They had attempted to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the 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.
What the return signified
The return on 18 November 2019 came just days before the first anniversary of the seizure. It resolved the fate of the vessels themselves: three ships that had been held for nearly a year went back to the Ukrainian Navy.
The handover was reported at the time as part of the wider Russia–Ukraine relationship and the Ukrainian crisis. It closed one specific chapter of the Kerch Strait confrontation, though the broader dispute between the two countries continued.
