Germany considers closing its ports to Russian ships after incident in Kerch Strait
Following the incident in the Kerch Strait, German authorities are considering new restrictions for Russia if it doesn’t release detained Ukrainian ships and their crew members.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a German politician who has served as General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) suggested closing Germany’s ports to Russian ships which are sailing from the Sea of Azov. She said that all EU countries and the USA should consider this measure as a reprisal to Russia’s actions.
“One answer might be, for example, to ban Russian ships coming from the Sea of Azov from entering European or US ports until this situation with Ukraine is resolved,” Reuters cites her as saying.
On Sunday, Russia detained three Ukrainian Navy ships that were about to enter the Sea of Azov near the Kerch Bridge. Their crews were accused of the illegally crossing the Russian maritime border. Ukrainian authorities declared martial law and the EU and NATO called for a de-escalation of the situation. The EU is preparing new sanctions against Russia.