Ukraine’s deployment to the Azov Sea on Sept. 23 of two warships, rusty, old and poorly armed though they are, is a significant development in the battle for control of the Azov Sea.
This overlooked yet strategically important body of water is slap bang in the middle of the Ukraine’s “anything-but-a-war” conflict with Russia.
Since Russia opened its illegally built bridge across the Kerch Straits, from mainland Russia to Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, the Kremlin, via its FSB secret police, which doubles as a border force, has been harassing merchant shipping moving through the Azov Sea from Ukrainian ports to the wider world.
The Kremlin cites worries over security – Russia apparently fears Ukraine has the capability to sabotage the bridge – but it seems much more likely that the Kremlin is simply trying demonstrate that it now has control over the Azov Sea, which, according to treaty, should be a shared area of control between Ukraine and Russia.
In response to the Kremlin broadsides, Ukraine has at last defiantly sent a 49-year-old military transport ship, preceded by a 40-year-old tug, under the Kerch bridge, which Russia illegally built over the straits that separate Russia from Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula – under Russian military occupation (also illegally) since early 2014.
The two-ship Ukrainian force was met with an absurd display of Kremlin military paranoia as soon as it neared the Kerch Straits.
Up to ten Russian vessels swarmed around the Ukrainian ships, even as they navigated the Kerch Bridge, and Russian aircraft buzzed the Ukrainian naval vessels.
However, the Russians made no move to stop the Ukrainian navy ships from moving into what are, according to the laws of the sea and international treaty, Ukrainian waters.
Perhaps it was the presence of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft in the Black Sea area, or that of a U.S. Global Hawk UAV, which was cruising, watchfully, over the southern coast of the Azov Sea, that prevented Russia from taking aggressive actions against the Ukrainian ships.
But Ukraine and the world should take note: Russia is not as strong as the Kremlin would have you believe.
In an area that the Russian navy has claimed as its own, the Kremlin still lacks the confidence to challenge the Ukrainian navy‘s legal right to operate in its own waters. This is after Russia stole 75 percent of Ukraine’s navy, which was based in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Sevastopol.
Ukraine and the rest of the world should not be fooled by the Kremlin into thinking the costs of pushing back against Kremlin aggression are too costly to be borne.
On Sept. 23, the plucky Ukrainian navy showed that with some courage, it can even be plain sailing.
Frontlines 
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