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MOSCOW – Russian coastguards opened fire and seized on Sunday three Ukrainian ships, injuring two crew members, after a tense tension in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said.
Russia accused Ukraine of provoking this incident, which has greatly exacerbated tensions between the two countries since then. Moscow annexed the Crimea of Ukraine in 2014, and he worked tirelessly to strengthen his control zone around the peninsula.
Earlier in the day, Russia and Ukraine exchanged accusations regarding a separate incident involving the same vessels, which led Moscow to block the crossing into the narrow Kerch Strait, separating the peninsula from the Russian continent.
The Ukrainian Navy said that two of its gunboats had been hit and that Russian crews had boarded and seized them as well as a tugboat.
The Russian Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, which oversees the coastguard said that there was "irrefutable evidence that Kiev was planning and orchestrating provocations … in the Black Sea." documents will soon be made public ".
The FSB confirmed Monday morning that he had fired at the ships to force them to stop and then seized them.
An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened Monday morning to deal with the escalation of the situation, which would be attended by the outgoing US ambassador Nikki Haley.
Pamela Falk of CBS News said the emergency mission to UK Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy had called for an emergency meeting. He said that he had convened the meeting "to discuss dangerous provocations for Ukraine in the sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait near the Crimea threatening international peace and security".
Ukraine's ambassador to the world organization Volodymyr Yelchenko, however, retorted in a tweet, referring to "the aggressive behavior of the aggressor", which, he added, could only be addressed "by co-ordinated joint efforts".
The European Union and NATO have called for restraint on both sides and in Moscow to restore access to the strait, which Ukraine uses to move ships to and from ports located on either side of the peninsula.
The Ukrainian authorities said that they had informed the Russians in advance that the ships would pass through the strait, which connects the Black Sea to the sea of Azov.
Russia said the three Ukrainian vessels had made an unauthorized crossing in Russian territorial waters, while Ukraine claimed that one of its boats had been beaten by a Russian coastguard ship .
The tug that was struck traveled with the two Ukrainian gunboats from Odessa on the Black Sea to Mariupol, a port of eastern Ukraine, through the Kerch Strait.
"Russian Coast Guard vessels … have been carrying out overtly aggressive actions against Ukrainian navy ships," the Ukrainian statement said. The tug was damaged by its engine, hull, railings and lifeboat.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on Sunday posted a video that was said to have been fired from inside the Russian ship as he sank the Ukrainian tug. Avakov did not reveal how the Interior Ministry got the video, but there is heard a Russian officer instruct his crew to continue sailing to the much smaller ship for the force to flee. After the impact with the tug, he orders his crew to stop their own ship.
Avakov called video evidence of "aggression" Russian for a minute and 15 seconds and said he was eager to receive support from Ukraine 's allies in response.
Russia blocks key seaway
The Kerch Strait is the only passage in the sea of Azov. The strait is crossed by the recently completed and highly symbolic Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to Russia. The transit under the bridge was blocked by a tanker and dozens of cargo ships waiting to cross are blocked.
Russia has given no indication of the time it will block in the Strait, but a long-term closure would amount to an economic blockade of Ukrainian towns on the Azov coast. The Russian Black Sea Fleet far surpasses the Ukrainian navy.
The Ukrainian ports on the sea of Azov include strategic centers, such as Mariupol, the nearest city controlled by the government, with the exception of Donetsk and Luhansk, the separatist regions of the east of Ukraine controlled by separatists backed by Russia. Thousands of people in these areas have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian troops and separatists since 2014.
Ukraine blames Russia, Russia blames Ukraine and the United States
After the first incident, the FSB informed Russian news agencies that Ukrainian vessels had maintained their course and violated Russian territorial waters.
"Their goal is clear: to create a situation of conflict in the region," says the FSB statement. It was not mentioned that a Ukrainian tug had been rammed.
Although a 2003 treaty designated the Kerch Strait and the Azov Sea as shared territorial waters, Russia claims increased control over this crossing since 2015.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said earlier that Russia's actions violated the United Nations Charter and international law, and pledged to "promptly inform our partners of Russia's aggressive actions".
"Such acts pose a threat to the security of all states in the Black Sea region," the statement said, "and therefore require a clear response from the international community."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, after a meeting with his national security council, said in a statement that he would ask parliament Monday to look into the question of whether to apply the martial law on the incident.
About 50-100 people gathered in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev to protest Moscow's actions.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a commentator of Russian state-controlled television, told viewers of his Sunday night news show that Poroshenko, encouraged by the United States, was seeking to fight against Russia in the Black Sea .
The show's host also alleged that the US had persuaded Poroshenko to stage a provocation against Russia as a way to disrupt a future meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit. to be held this week in Argentina.
"What's happening now on the (Kerch) bridge is threatening to turn into a very unpleasant story," Kiselyov said.
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