Ukraine accuses Russia of illegally seeking control over sea of Azov, Kerch strait in arbitration hearing

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy/ AFP

Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of attempting to illegally seize control of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, as hearings in a major arbitration case between Kyiv and Moscow began. The hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration are part of ongoing international legal challenges over Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which coincides with ongoing warfare in the region, reported the Associated Press.

Ukrainian envoy Anton Korynevych informed the arbitrators that Russia wants to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself, referring to a bridge built by Russia across the Kerch Strait. This $3.5 billion, 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge connects the Black and Azov Seas and is critical to Russian military activities in southern Ukraine, the AP report stated.

"Russia wants to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself, and so it has built a great gate at the entrance to keep international shipping out while allowing small Russian river vessels in," Ukrainian representative Anton Korynevych told a panel of arbitrators.

Korynevych stated: "The bridge is illegal and must be demolished."

Reportedly, Ukraine filed the complaint in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea. It accuses Russia of breaking a United Nations maritime convention by building the bridge, which has deprived Ukrainian fishermen of their customary fishing grounds, destroyed the ecology, and stolen submerged archaeological sites. Kyiv is demanding undisclosed reparations.

According to the AP report, Russia claims that the arbitration court lacks jurisdiction in this dispute. If the five judges decide they do, Russia insists that Ukraine's claims be invalidated. Gennady Kuzmin, a Russian agent, told the panel that Ukraine's claims were "completely groundless and hopeless." He said that the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait are "internal waters" and hence not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Ukraine believes Russia is violating.

"Ukraine's accusations in this case are, of course, completely groundless and hopeless," Russian Agent Gennady Kuzmin was quoted as saying.

After the opening speeches on Monday, the hearings will be held confidentially for several days. A final decision may take years to be obtained, the report added.