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Photo UATV/Ukrinform
The Russian military blocked off the Kerch Strait today, preventing Ukrainian ships from accessing the Sea of Azov.
Traffic through the strait was blocked by a tanker anchored near the Kerch Strait bridge, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, quoting General Director of the Crimean Seaports Alexei Volkov, traffic through the strait was closed for “security purposes.”
The Kerch Strait links the Azov Sea with the Black Sea. Earlier this year, the Russian government opened the 19-kilometer bridge across the strait, creating a road linking Russia’s Krasnodar region with the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s latest moves in the Azov Sea follow a confrontation earlier in the day in which its coastguard rammed a ship into a Ukrainian tugboat that was transferring vessels from Odesa to Mariupol. The tugboat’s main engine was damaged, as well as shell plating and guard railing.
Two Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters were also observed tracking Ukrainian vessels.
