Two senior British members of parliament from the country’s governing Conservative party, both former secretaries of state, have concluded a four-day working visit to Ukraine’s troubled Sea of Azov region, having visited the port cities of Berdiansk, Mariupol and the surrounding areas.
Arriving back in the Ukrainian capital late on the evening of Dec 22, Michael Fallon and John Whittingdale told Kyiv Post they had traveled to the Azov Sea with Ukrainian lawmakers to see for themselves Russia’s “slow strangulation” of the region.
They both said that Russia’s creeping annexation of the Azov Sea and its throttling of traffic through the Kerch Strait that connects the Black and Azov seas was “absolutely unacceptable” and a form of economic warfare.
They called for Western countries to step up and do more in support of Ukraine, but to also pay close attention to how such Russian tactics could, in the future, affect them too.
Read also: Russia’s latest naval attack continues years of aggression in Black Sea
The visit took place during a week of high-level, strategic and diplomatic British activity along Ukraine’s troubled coastline.
On Dec. 21, U.K. defense secretary Gavin Williamson visited the Black Sea port city of Odesa, two days after the Royal Navy warship HMS Echo arrived for maneuvers in the area.
“We want to demonstrate the solidarity that we have with Ukraine and the fact that Ukraine doesn’t stand alone,” Williamson said. “This isn’t Russia’s sea – this is an international sea,” he added, speaking aboard the Ukrainian navy’s flagship.
First high-level visits
The simultaneous stopovers from key lawmakers, Williamson, Fallon and Whittingdale, are the first official visits of lawmakers from a G7 country since the dramatic events of Nov. 25 on the Black Sea, when Russian ships attacked Ukrainian naval vessels, illegally seized three boats and arrested 24 Ukrainian sailors, who still remain imprisoned in Moscow.
The visit is also significant as all three lawmakers, one serving and two former secretaries of state, opted to largely bypass Kyiv and instead visit Ukraine’s troubled coastal cities of Odesa, Berdiansk and Mariupol, where security tensions remain high.
Fallon was the U.K. secretary defense in 2014, as Russia was in the processing of illegally annexing the Crimean peninsula and launching its war against Ukraine in the country’s east.
In response at the time, Fallon launched Britain’s Operation Orbital, its military assistance and defense training program for then under-prepared Ukrainian armed forces – he also extended and strengthened the mission throughout his three-year tenure as defense secretary, while also deploying British fighter planes in Romania for the first time.
Whittingdale is a frequent visitor to Ukraine, a strong advocate for the country in the British parliament and currently chairs the U.K.-Ukraine All Party Parliamentary Group in London.
Both politicians told Kyiv Post they wanted to visit the Azov Sea to see for themselves the most recent, Russian escalations against the country and what effect it was having on society, security and business.
Ukraine’s troubled waters
“It was very clear, how both ports – Berdiansk and Mariupol – are suffering from the way in which cargo traffic is being restricted through the Kerch Strait,” said Fallon. “The delays involved are obviously discouraging shipping companies from using the strait, and inevitably the costs are rising,” he added.
But Fallon, formerly a member of the U.K. National Security Council, also added that Western countries still needed to step up and not forget about Ukraine.
“This is a serious situation. I wanted to come here anyway, because this isn’t the kind of incident that should be deplored by other countries and then simply forgotten.”
“The sailors have not been returned, the boats have not been returned, and it’s very important that Russia is not allowed to get away with this… the international community needs to respond strongly,” Fallon said, adding that Russia will eventually turn the Azov Sea into a Russian lake if it’s not held accountable to international law.
“One of the consequences that we witnessed, in both of the ports that we visited (Mariupol and Berdyansk) is they are pretty empty,” said Whittingdale. “And in Mariupol, we saw one ship being loaded, but were told it was likely to be stopped for 15 days waiting for checks – even though there’s no legal basis for that.”
“I think it is economic warfare,” said Whittingdale, adding that the Russian strategy was to undermine the competitiveness of Ukraine’s Azov ports and strangle the region’s economy.
Security at sea
On Dec. 22, the Royal Navy’s HMS Echo cast off from the Ukrainian port of Odesa to undertake maneuvers in the Black Sea, before later paying a visit to and docking at the Romanian port of Constanta, where she remained on Dec. 23.
But HMS Echo is highly unlikely to be the only British or NATO warship paying a visit to the Black Sea in coming months, amid heightened security concerns.
“I can’t go into specifics about how Echo, or her sister ship (HMS Enterprise) will conduct these freedom of navigation exercises – but they are extremely important in reminding everybody that the Black Sea is an international waterway,” said Fallon.
“There’s going to be another Royal Navy ship visit… but these need to be more regular, and it needs to be part of a normal pattern of visits throughout the Black Sea,” Fallon said, adding that he would like to see a stronger, standing, NATO maritime naval group more actively exercised throughout the Black Sea.
“I think that (NATO presence) would be welcomed right across the Black Sea… NATO has put a lot of emphasis on its north-eastern flank – we’ve put troops into Estonia, other Baltic states and Poland, but it’s very important to see NATO’s security as a 360 degree (picture) and to look at the south and south-east,” Fallon said, adding that NATO air patrols over the Black Sea, out of Romania and Bulgaria, should also be boosted.
Going by the statements of Fallon, Williamson and Whittingdale, Ukraine can look to the United Kingdom as a reliable ally in the near future as it moves to bolster its coastal and maritime security. Britain stands ready, according to Fallon, to act in support of Ukraine on a “demand-led” basis with extra measures and support possible, depending on what Ukraine says it needs.
But Britain and other Western countries are also carefully studying Russia’s actions in the Black and Azov seas, evaluating how they can better respond to such tactics if they happen elsewhere.
“What is happening at the entrance to the Kerch Strait, and the attack on the Ukrainian boats, is absolutely unacceptable, and we will have to think as a country about how our own ships are protected and not subjected to unnecessary harassment from Russia,” Fallon said.
