Russia and Ukraine face off over Kerch Strait | Russia-Ukraine war News

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.

Kyiv started proceedings at the court in 2016 after Moscow began building the 19km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge, linking its mainland to the peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine two years earlier.

The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It is now an important supply route for Moscow’s troops fighting on the eastern front.

Kyiv, which previously attacked the bridge, wants it demolished. It asserts that Russia built it deliberately low to keep international ships out while allowing smaller Russian vessels through the strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

Russia’s Gennady Kuzmin denied that Moscow interfered with navigation and said the court had no right to rule in the case.

“All of Ukraine’s claims are baseless, fall outside of the scope of your jurisdiction, and should be dismissed in their entirety,” Kuzmin said.

Moscow says Ukraine is seeking to have the PCA rule on the sovereignty of Crimea, which is beyond its scope. The court ruled in 2020 that Russia had a point and asked Ukraine to refile its case accordingly.

Set up in 1899, the PCA is the world’s oldest arbitral tribunal. It resolves disputes between countries and private parties over contracts, special agreements and various treaties, such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The hearings are due to last until October 5. The court often takes months, if not years, to reach a decision.