Russia and Ukraine face off over Kerch Strait
Al Jazeera
Ukraine accuses Russia of flouting maritime law by restricting Kerch Strait flanking occupied Crimea.
Ukraine has accused Russia of flouting maritime law by trying to put the Kerch Strait under its sole control.
The warring nations faced off at an international court in the Netherlands on Monday to fight over the strategic waterway that lies between mainland Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and 31 months of fighting since saw the pair firing legal broadsides at one other at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.
“Russia wants to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself,” Ukraine’s representative Anton Korynevych told arbitrators at the opening of hearings.
“Ukraine is here to prove Russia’s many violations of the laws of the sea and to demonstrate that Russia is not free to rewrite the laws of the sea,” he added.
