Ukraine will send warships back to its Azov Sea ports again, a security official said on Wednesday, despite Russia's seizure of three navy vessels and their crew in the area last month.
Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads over the crisis of Crimea in 2014.
The dispute deepened when Moscow last month seized two small Ukrainian gunboats and one tugboat – with a combined crew of 24 – off Crimea, accusing them of illegally entering Russian waters as they headed from the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait.
The United States and European Union have demanded the sailors' release, and U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in protest.
“Russia's aggression will not stop our plans to create a naval group in the Sea of Azov,” Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the Ukrainian government's national security and defense council, said in an interview with the local BBC branch.
Turchynov said Kiev would invite representatives of the transatlantic military alliance NATO and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) onboard next time to prove Ukraine was not violating any regulations.
He did not say when ships might next attempt to pass, although he added it should not be long.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a news conference, Moscow, Russia, January 17, 2017. /VCG Photo
Responding to the comments, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine's intention to send warships back through the Kerch Strait was a “provocation.”
(Top image: The Nikopol gunboat, the Berdyansk gunboat, and the Yany Kapu tugboat (L-R) of the Ukrainian Navy tugged to the Kerch Seaport, Crimea, November 26, 2018. /VCG Photo)