The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine issued an order to bring the Armed Forces of Ukraine into full combat readiness.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are on full alert in response to Russia's aggression near the Kerch Strait, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Facebook on Monday.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian coast guard ships opened fire on a group of vessels of the Ukrainian Navy – two small-sized 'Berdiansk' and 'Nikopol' armored artillery boats and the 'Yany Kapu' tugboat – as they were leaving the Kerch Strait on Sunday evening.
Prior to that, on Sunday morning, the 'Yany Kapu' (Yani Qapi) tugboat of Ukraine's Navy was rammed by a Russian coast guard ship while the Ukrainian vessels were carrying out a planned transfer from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov.
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The Ukrainian side said notification about the transfer plans had been done in advance in accordance with international rules to ensure safe navigation.
Russia, in turn, claims that the Ukrainian vessels "illegally" entered the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation. The FSB alleges that the Ukrainian side did not file an application for passage and its boats were not included in the timetable for navigation through the Kerch Strait.
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The Ukrainian Navy's command insists that under Articles 17 and 38 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and Article 2 of the Treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, Ukrainian warships enjoy freedom of navigation, and therefore can pass through the Kerch Strait at any time, subject only to navigation safety regulations.
Later, it became known that a Russian special ops unit had seized all the three Ukrainian boats when they were leaving the Kerch Strait.
Six crew of Ukraine's Navy were reportedly wounded, two of them reportedly remained in serious condition.
Ukraine's presidential envoy to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Borys Babin wrote on Facebook that at there were least two dozen prisoners of war as a result of a recent act of Russian aggression.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council overnight Monday spoke in favor of introducing martial law in Ukraine against the background of Russia's outright aggression against Ukrainian ships. The move is to be considered by the Verkhovna Rada at its extraordinary meeting at 16:00 on Monday, Nov 26
