The Sunday Show: Russia’s Maritime Aggression Against Ukraine

It’s been a difficult week for Ukraine. The Russian attack on November 25 led to three Ukrainian military vessels seized and 24 naval officers detained. Multiple servicemen suffered potentially serious injuries.

Later that evening, President Petro Poroshenko convened an emergency meeting with the nation’s war council where he proposed imposing martial law for a period of 60 days to counter further aggression from Russia.

The next day, Ukraine’s parliament held an extraordinary session on the matter and confirmed the president’s request for martial law. Amid concerns that this would affect Ukraine’s presidential elections, which officially start on December 31, as well as concerns over the restrictions on the civil liberties of citizens, the final decision on martial law stipulated that it would last only for a period of 30 days and be imposed in only 10 regions of Ukraine – those bordering Russia and the unrecognized Transnistrian republic, and the coastal regions.

The latest reports from Russian authorities say the captured personnel have been transferred from a detention center in annexed Crimea to one in Moscow.

On this week’s Sunday Show, we discuss the aftermath of the attack and the status of the captured Ukrainian naval officers. We also take a look at how Ukraine is dealing with martial law and what this means for the country.

Oleksandr Khara

Deputy Chair, Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies

Sergiy Korsunsky

Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey (2008-2016)

Nadia Volkova

Director, Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group

Mykhailo Samus

Deputy Director for International Affairs at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies

Paul Niland

writer, founder of Statement Email