A seized Ukrainian ship is towed by a Russian Coast Guard vessel out of the port in Kerch, near the bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula, November 17, 2019. /Reuters Photo
Russia on Monday handed back three naval ships it captured last year to Ukraine, something Kiev wanted to happen before a four-way peace summit on eastern Ukraine next month in Paris.
The handover, confirmed by the two countries' foreign ministries, occurred in the Black Sea off the coast of Crimea. Russia seized the ships in the Kerch Strait in November last year after opening fire on them and wounding several sailors. Moscow said the ships – two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat – had illegally entered its territorial waters. Kiev denied that.
Russia returned the sailors who had been on board the ships to Ukraine in September as part of a prisoner exchange deal.
Various Russian media outlets reported that the ships would be returned to Ukraine on Monday without their ammunition and documentation.
Seized Ukrainian naval ships are guarded by Russia's Coast Guard vessels in the port in Kerch, near the bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula, November 17, 2019. /Reuters Photo
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Moscow would respond harshly in the future to what it called any similar maritime "provocations" near its borders.
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the three captured ships were en route to the port of Odessa. It said that their original voyage, which Russia had interpreted as a border violation, had been peaceful and legal and that Kiev planned to pursue a case against Russia over the matter at an international arbitration panel in the Netherlands.
Ukraine's military also confirmed on Monday that Russia is returning the three ships.
Despite those and other continuing tensions, the handover is likely to be seen as a confidence-building measure ahead of the planned Ukraine summit however.
Relatives meet former Ukrainian prisoners freed by Russia at Boryspil International Airport in Kiev, after the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, September 7, 2019. /VCG Photo
The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine will meet in Paris on December 9 in an attempt to advance efforts for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the French presidency said on Friday.
The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would take part in the four-way summit.
More than 13,000 people have been killed in the more than five-year-old conflict in east Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed following Crimea's incorporation into Russia in March 2014, which prompted Western sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won a landslide election victory in April promising to end the conflict.