Defence officials in Kiev said the ”openly aggressive actions” took place as three of its vessels sailed from the Black Sea port of Odessa to Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian navy said its tugboat Yana Kapu tug suffered damage to its engine, guard rail and outer shell when it was deliberately rammed. But Russia claimed the ships were in its waters and has accused the Ukrainians of “provocative actions” and has now blocked access to the Sea of Azov with a tanker under the bridge that spans the Kerch Strait.
Russia said the Ukrainian vessels – two small warships named as the Berdyansk and the Nikopol, and the tug – were trying “to create a conflict situation in this region” after they left Odessa.
The ships “illegally entered a temporarily closed area of Russian territorial waters”.
But Ukraine said it had informed the Russians of its plan to move its ships through the sea to Mariupol.
And the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, has blamed the US and Europe of for the “provocations”.
He said: “Today, Ukrainian warships illegally crossed Russia’s border and blatantly violated norms of international law.
“I am sure Western patrons of the Kiev regime are behind this provocation – it doesn’t look a mere coincidence that European and American politicians have been so concerned over the situation in the Sea of Azov in the recent months.
“Ukraine, as a country stripped of sovereignty and being under external governance, is an instrument for whipping up international tensions.”
Tensions have been rising in the seas off the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, over the last few months and a Russian FSB security service official said Ukraine had sent naval reinforcements to the area.
Russia has recently increased its military presence and inspections, with some calling its actions an “economic blockade” of Ukraine’s Azov ports in the east of the country.
More than 10,000 people have died in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk region since separatists moved against the Ukrainian state in April 2014.
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of sending its troops to the region and arming the separatists.
Moscow denies this, but admits that Russian “volunteers” are helping the rebels.