Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: A day after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels after firing on them off the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine’s parliament approved President Petro Poroshenko’s call to impose martial law for 30 days in parts of Ukraine bordering Russia and the Black Sea on Monday. According to a report by news agency Reuters, Ukraine has warned of the “extremely serious” threat of a land invasion. Poroshenko said that the martial law was necessary to bolster Ukraine’s defences after Russia seized their naval ships and took its crew prisoner during the weekend.
The ongoing rift between the two European countries over a shared waterway escalated into a crisis that dragged in NATO and the United Nations.
This is for the first time that the Ukrainian government has taken such stringent action since the crisis between Moscow and Kyiv started in 2014. This loggerhead has backed an insurgency in the eastern Donbass region that has killed more than 10,000 people despite a notional ceasefire
What is the dispute all about?
The dispute over control of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, which connects Black Sea to the south, flared in 2003 during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first term in the office. However, the situation was brought back to normal with a 2003 bilateral treaty stating that both the countries could use the Kerch Strait and Azov Sea freely for commercial shipping and must notify each other while sending military vessels.
This year, the tension has been escalated with Ukraine accusing Russia of persistently detaining ships sailing to and from its ports on the Azov Sea. Russia, on the other hand, accuses Ukraine of harassing their ships and says its own checks on Ukrainian vessels are lawful and necessary to ensure the security of the area.
Ukraine was also discontented about Russia’s announcement of $3.6 billion bridge from its mainland across the Kerch Strait to Crimea. Ukraine stated that the bridge was too low for certain vessels to pass through further hampering trade.
Ukraine informed that it has now deployed more air, land, sea and artillery forces to the area and now plans to build a military base on the Azov Sea.
Even the US President Donald Trump said he did not like what was happening between Russia and Ukraine and was working with European leaders on the situation. As per reports, the European Union (EU), Britain, France, Poland, Denmark, and Canada all have condemned what they called Russian aggression. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the need for dialogue.
