Angela Merkel

Bundesregierung/ YouTube

Michael Pence

Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen / Flickr

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected in February proposal Vice President Michael Pence to send German warships through the Strait of Kerch to demonstrate Russia’s tough stance of the West. This was reported on Thursday by Bloomberg.

According to three sources, the Pens offered Merkel to send warships through the Strait during their meeting on 16 February at the Munich security conference. Merkel, according to the Agency, hinted that it was prepared to consider a single conducting such joint maneuvers of the Navy of Germany and France. Ultimately, however, the Chancellor rejected the offer of a Penny “to show Putin that the Western powers will not abandon its” access to the waters of the Kerch Strait, citing the position of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. It is, according to Merkel, considered such a single measure is inadequate, since it fails to ensure free navigation along the Crimean coast at any time.

According to the Agency, the leadership of France refused to send warships in the Strait of Kerch, because I felt this idea of “unnecessary provocation.”

Meeting Merkel and Pence took place in Munich after his speech at the security conference, the Chancellor criticized U.S. foreign policy, and said it was impossible to exclude Russia from gas market of the European Union for political reasons, RBC. According to Bloomberg, Merkel was concerned by the statements of Pence, who tried to convince the EU to abandon gas pipeline project “Nord stream – 2”.

According to sources, the Agency, it is the dissatisfaction with the attempts of Washington to stop the implementation of the “Nord stream – 2” became one of the factors that led Merkel to speak in criticism of the United States.

Bloomberg notes that Russia “seized Crimea in 2014”. After that began the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait to link Crimea with the Krasnodar territory. At the same time Moscow began to obstruct the sea connection across the Kerch Strait, in fact organizing the blockade of Ukrainian ports on the Azov sea. The situation escalated on 25 November 2018, when Russian border guards detained with weapons in the area of the Kerch Strait three Ukrainian military ship – tug “Yana Kapu” and small armored artillery boat “Berdyansk” and “Nikopol”. The Ukrainian ships were sent from Odessa to Mariupol.

The captured vessels were escorted to Kerch. According to the Federation, three ships of naval forces of Ukraine violated the right of passage of warships through the territorial waters of the Russian Federation when following from the Black to the Azov sea. Against 24 of those arrested sailors initiated a criminal case under part 3 of article 322 (illegal crossing of the state border of Russia) of the criminal code providing for up to six years of imprisonment.

In Kiev detained sailors called prisoners of war. The FSB claimed that they could not be considered as such as are accused with a criminal offence, and Russia and Ukraine are not at war or military conflict.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 26 November approved a decree of President Petro Poroshenko on the introduction of martial law in the border of ten regions of the country from November 28 to 30 days, and the head of state said the threat of full-scale war with Russia. Later martial law was lifted.

In the U.S. Senate called for a tough operation for the liberation of the Kerch Strait for navigation. At the end of February in the Black sea entered the US destroyer Donald Cook with missile weapons. Before that, in January, on the Black sea sailed to the American landing ship “Fort McHenry”.

The defense Ministry promised to continue to send ships in the Kerch Strait, even under the threat of large-scale Russian aggression. In the Russian Parliament said that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities may lead to a new world war.