Nato and UN Security Council call meetings after Russia seizes Ukrainian ships

Kiev Crisis began after Russia stopped three Ukrainian ships from entering the Sea of Azov by placing a cargo ship beneath a bridge

Moscow says Western-backed Kiev is ‘trying to unleash a military hysteria to get political gains’ before a presidential election in March

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Russian jet fighters fly over vessels after the channel beneath a bridge connecting the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula was blocked to stop three Ukrainian navy ships from entering the Sea of Azov on November 25, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:18am, 26 Nov 2018Updated: 10:46pm, 26 Nov 2018

Ukraine’s president demanded on Monday that Russia immediately release Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in a stand-off around Crimea that sharply escalated tensions between the two countries and drew international concern.

The two neighbours have been locked in a tense tug of war since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, but the incident late on Sunday in which Russian coastguard ships fired on Ukrainian navy vessels near the Kerch Strait directly pitted the two militaries, placing them on the verge of an open conflict.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill on Monday to impose martial law in the country.

“I want to emphasise separately that we have all irrefutable evidence that this aggression, this attack on the Ukrainian Navy’s warships was not a mistake, not an accident, but a deliberate action,” Poroshenko said earlier in a statement.

The Ukrainian navy said six of its seamen were wounded when Russian coastguards opened fire on three Ukrainian ships near the Kerch Strait and then seized them.

Russia’s Federal Security Service that is in charge of the coastguard said that three Ukrainian sailors were lightly injured and given medical help. It said the Ukrainian boats were towed to the nearby port of Kerch.