December 5, 2018
KIEV (Reuters) Ukraine said on Tuesday it had resumed grain shipments from the
Azov Sea, blocked for around 10 days after a military standoff with Russia in
the Kerch Strait off Crimea. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and
their crews on Nov. 25 after opening fire on them, accusing them of illegally
entering its territorial waters.
Ukraine denied its ships had done
anything wrong and accused Russia of military aggression. Its president, Petro
Poroshenko, imposed martial law on Nov. 26 in parts of the country deemed most
vulnerable to Russian attack. “The passage of vessels with agricultural
products through ports in the Azov Sea has been unlocked,” Ukraine’s
agriculture ministry said on Tuesday in a statement.
“The loading of grain to vessels
through the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk is restored and carried out in
regular mode,” it said. Earlier, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Volodymyr
Omelyan had said the two ports - vital for eastern Ukraine’s economy - had been
“partially unlocked” with the restoration of some free movement through the
Kerch Strait.
Germany welcomed the news but also
repeated its call for Russia to release the 24 Ukrainian sailors who are facing
charges of illegally entering Russian waters. “We will try to ensure that this
conflict does not result in a serious crisis,” German
Foreign minister Heiko Maas told
reporters in Brussels after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers also attended
by officials from Ukraine and Georgia. Germany wants to de-escalate the
situation and work toward a political solution, he said, adding there would be
further discussions on the issue this week but gave no details. German
Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the Azov Sea standoff with Russian President
Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina.
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