Ukraine says Russia has seized 3 of its warships after firing on them near Crimea

Ukraine has accused Russia of firing on and seizing three of its warships after a confrontation on Sunday in the sea close to Crimea.

Ukraine’s navy, in a statement posted on its Facebook page, said that ships belonging to Russia’s FSB border service had fired on its warships, damaging two of them and injuring at least two Ukrainian sailors.

The Ukrainian navy said that Russian special forces had now seized the ships, two small armored artillery frigates and a tug.

Russia earlier on Sunday had accused the Ukrainian ships of unlawfully entering Russian waters as they sought to pass through the Kerch strait, the crossing from mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

The sea around Kerch has become the site of an increasingly tense confrontation between Russia and Ukraine recently, with Ukraine accusing Russia of blockading its ships’ access.

Today’s incident began to unfold early on Sunday. Ukraine’s navy said its three ships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yani Kapu, has been making a planned relocation from the city of Odessa to Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov that is under Ukrainian control and is located close to the frontline with rebels backed by Russia

Russia’s FSB agency in Crimea early Sunday, however, accused the Ukrainian ships of entering what it said was Russia waters and blocked access to the Sea of Azov with a tanker.

In its Facebook statement, Ukraine’s navy said that the frigates, the Berdyansk and the Nikopol had been halted by Russian fire. The tug, the Yani Kapu, had been forced to stop as well, it said.