Paul Goble
Staunton,
August 22 – Andrey Klimenko, the editor of BlackSeaNews and a member of the
Maidan of Foreign Affairs, says that Russia did not allow a single ship to pass
through the Kerch Straits to Ukrainian ports between August 14 and August 21,
effectively cutting of those ports from international trade.
At
present, he says, there are 16 ships stopped in the straits, three of which
have been there for a week; and the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk are almost
empty (news.enovosty.com/news_politics/full/2108-rf-zakryla-dlya-ukrainy-kerchenskij-proliv-karta).
Meanwhile, Oleg Slobodyan, the spokesman
for the Ukrainian State Border Service, told Kyiv’s 112 Ukraina television that
Russian forces have stopped “more than 150 foreign ships” in the Kerch Straits
headed to or from Ukrainian ports but have allowed those headed to or from
Russian ports to proceed (russian.rt.com/ussr/news/547251-ukraina-rossiya-korabli).
If true, this pattern constitutes a
blockade of Ukraine and thus yet another act of war by Russia against its
neighbor.
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