Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has summoned his war cabinet after Russian ships fired on Ukranian vessels in the Black Sea, seizing three and injuring multiple crew members, Kyiv’s national security council confirmed Sunday, Euronews reports.
It comes hours after the countries accused one another of “provocation” when a Ukranian boat was “rammed” in a standoff with Russian border ships off the coast of Crimea. Moscow annexed the peninsula from Kyiv in 2014.
Three vessels, including two small warships and a tug boat, were sailing from Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov when they were confronted by Russian ships in an “openly aggressive” manner, the Ukranian Navy said in a statement.
The crafts were approaching the Kerch Strait between Crimea and Russia when the tug boat was struck, damaging its engine, guard rail and outer shell.
Момент тарана. (Обсценная лексика) pic.twitter.com/TIyS7897mA
— Александр Коц (@sashakots) November 25, 2018
Footage thought to have been taken during the skirmish has been shared on social media.
“The Russian Federation has once again demonstrated its aggressive nature and complete neglect of the norms of international law,” the Navy said, referring to a treaty from 2003 which guarantees free passage through the Kerch Strait for Ukrainian and Russian vessels.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry added that they would liaise with their allies concerning Moscow’s “violent acts”, saying they “pose a threat to the security of all states of the Black Sea region, and therefore require a clear reaction from the international community”.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), meanwhile, says Kyiv “illegally” entered its territorial waters and carried out “dangerous manoeuvres” against the orders of Russian authorities, prompting them to act.
Passage through the Kerch Strait had been “temporarily blocked” by a Russian cargo ship sitting under a Moscow-controlled bridge “for security reasons” when the incident unravelled, they added.