Two gunboats and a Ukrainian tugboat were captured by the Moscow forces, injured two sailors. Unrest triggered by nationalists in front of the Russian consulate in Lviv
High tension between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, off the Crimea. Moscow closed the Kerch Strait, the only sea link with the Azov sea, after an incursion by the Ukrainian Navy which Moscow called "a provocation": three Ukrainian ships - the two small gunboats Berdiansk and Nikopol, and the tugboat Yana Kapu - direct from the Black Sea to the Strait, they did not ask for the transit permit to go to the port of Mariupol, a gesture that the Russian authorities consider an affront capable of provoking «a regional conflict». Kiev has accused Russia of having opened fire, seriously wounding two sailors, and seizing the three ships of the Ukrainian fleet.
During the night, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council met in Kiev with President Petro Poroshenko, to ask Parliament to declare martial law.
There were moments of tension during the night when some cars parked in front of the Russian embassy were set on fire. The Ukrainian president specified that martial law does not mean "a declaration of war". "Ukraine has no plans to make war on anyone," assured the president, calling yesterday's incident "unprovoked and insane".
However, the defense ministry has announced that it has issued the order to put the armed forces on an operational alert.
According to sources of the defense, shots were fired, which resulted in the wounding of some Ukrainian sailors, a Ukrainian tug, who was towing two military units of the Kiev Navy through the Kerch Strait, which divides the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov , and the Crimean peninsula to the east from the continental territory of the Russian Federation, has been rammed.
According to Moscow it was a violation of Russian territorial waters, while according to Kiev the aggression is to be considered a provocative action as Moscow would have been warned in advance of the passage.