Russian ships banned from Ukraine’s ports of the Dniester, Danube, Dnieper rivers, but Russia controls the Azov Sea

Odessa, Ukraine (Ports Europe) January 3, 2022 - A law banning Russian ships from accessing Ukraine's internal waters came into force on January 1, 2022. Ships flying the flag of the aggressor state (as Russia is called in Ukraine) can no longer carry passengers and cargo on international routes between river ports. A similar measure has been introduced for cabotage cargo voyages in the inland waters of Ukraine. Inland river waterways in Ukraine include major European rivers - Dniester, Danube and the Dnieper. Kiev accuses Russia of interfering in its internal affairs, and in January 2015 declared it an aggressor state. The West has backed Ukraine and imposed sanctions on Russia. Moscow did not comment on the new measure. As of December 10, 2021, Russia blocked 70% of the Sea of Azov using navigational warnings with shipping restrictions. Among these areas is the water area near the Ukrainian port cities of Mariupol, Berdiansk and Henichesk. According to the Ukrainian Navy, in some places the boundaries of the restricted areas are approaching the Ukrainian coastline at a distance of four miles. Since 2014, Russia has occupied almost 5% of Ukraine’s landmass and more than half of its coastline. In eastern Ukraine, Russia and Russian-backed separatists continue to propagate a war, heavily damaging the Ukrainian economy and slowing Ukraine’s progress toward deepening ties with the West. Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba says Russia dictates the situation in the Sea of Azov and uses the area as a war theatre. “In terms of security, the Sea of Azov is dominated by Russia,” Kuleba told The Washington Post. “And in case of war, it will be heavily used by them to put pressure on our southern cities on the Azov shore”. Any new Russian invasion of Ukraine that might be in the works would likely include a land grab in the south designed to give the Kremlin a greater stranglehold on the Black Sea, according to analysts. Russian President Vladimir Putin could seize additional Ukrainian coastline along the Sea of Azov, said Jim Townsend, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. But that slice of littoral territory, which includes the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol, might not be enough for Putin, Townsend and others say. The southern port of Odessa, Ukraine’s biggest and one of the largest on the Black Sea, also could be on the list. But recent developments seem to be making an invasion less of a certainty. The U.S. and Russia have agreed to security talks in Geneva on January 10, and a top Russian government official said that Russia has never had any intention of invading Ukraine. Recently Moscow also announced the withdrawal of more than 10,000 troops involved in month long military exercises near Ukrainian border. Russia’s need to ensure a power position in the Black Sea was accomplished with its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Staking a claim to additional Ukrainian coastline along the Sea of Azov would give Russia a highly desired land bridge connecting it to occupied Crimea In and around Mariupol, an industrial port city with a population of 500,000 that is 800 km southeast of capital Kiev, has been tense since late in the spring of 2014. Russia-backed separatists briefly controlled it then before the Ukrainian military and its volunteer battalions dislodged them. Today, fighting continues to rage just 24 km to the east, in the once-quiet seaside town of Shyrokyne. But now tensions are spilling into the sea that washes the 300 km shoreline still controlled by Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea. The Sea of Azov, a rich fishing ground in Soviet times that has been of great strategic importance to an independent Ukraine, has emerged after months of growing friction as the latest flash point in the four-year conflict between Moscow and Kiev. While Russia's actions are "provocative," because of a controversial 2003 agreement on cooperation and shared use of the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, everything Russia is doing in the Azov Sea is technically legal. Signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's then-President Leonid Kuchma in 2003, the agreement makes the Sea of Azov jointly controlled territory, allowing both countries to use it freely. And despite the current conflict between Kiev and Moscow, the agreement is still in place. That deal, said observers and officials, has allowed Russia to impose an effective "sea blockade" in the Azov. It damages Ukraine’s economy, creates tensions in Mariupol and smaller cities and villages where people are making their living in sea trade and fishing. Mariupol and nearby Berdyansk are home to Ukraine's two major steel- and grain-exporting ports on the Sea of Azov and hundreds of private fishing companies that employ 20,000 people. The ports in both cities have experienced steep cuts in cargo handling since construction began on the Kerch Strait bridge, which opened in May 2018. According to Ukrainian sources, because of the low height of the bridge, 144 ships that rise taller than its 33 m clearance cannot reach the Port of Mariupol, resulting in a 30% loss in revenues for the port. More Ports Europe stories about the port of Mariupol Copyright (C) Ports Europe. All Rights Reserved. 2022.

Russian ships banned from Ukraine’s ports of the Dniester, Danube, Dnieper rivers, but Russia controls the Azov Sea

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Russian ships banned from Ukraine’s ports of the Dniester, Danube, Dnieper rivers, but Russia controls the Azov Sea

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