Putin Pushes Russia-Ukraine Tensions to a Four-Year High

[orangecrush]

Russia’s violent escalation of tensions with Ukraine over access to waters near the Crimean peninsula is potentially the most serious challenge to Kiev and the West—especially to Washington—since Russia annexed Crimea more than four years ago.

The maritime showdown could spark political uncertainty in Ukraine, which on Monday voted to impose martial law for 30 days to deal with the crisis. Russia’s aggressive behavior also sent the European Union, United Nations, and NATO scrambling for a response, raising the prospect of a beefed-up Western naval presence in the Black Sea and additional economic sanctions on Russia.

On Sunday, in what is thought to be the first time the Russian military has admitted directly opening fire on its Ukrainian counterparts in four years of war, Russian ships rammed and fired on a convoy headed into the Sea of Azov, the small body of water between the Crimean peninsula and southern Ukraine. Six Ukrainian sailors were wounded, and Russia detained two gunboats and a tugboat. It was the sharpest escalation since Moscow this spring began harassing and detaining hundreds of Ukrainian ships transiting the chokepoint of the Kerch Strait, which Russia controls thanks to the completion of Europe’s longest bridge in May.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/26/putin-pushes-russia-ukraine-tensions-to-a-four-year-high-kerch-crimea-ships/amp/

[empedocles]

1. Pompeo protests. Putin twisting trump's 'cojones'?

[orangecrush]

2. This is not good

no matter how you look at it.

Just read elsewhere Pompeo ducked questions about this from reporters.