Kerch Peninsula

The prospect of rising tensions in the Black Sea after Washington's claim that a Russian fighter jet downed a US surveillance drone near Crimea is naturally a cause of major concern. Most observers have so far focused on eastern Ukraine. However, not far from there, dark clouds are gathering from the Carpathians to the Caucasus and from the Sea of Azov to the Bosporus Strait.

"Russia's deliberate attacks on the entire territory of Ukraine and against civilians are a profound change in the nature of this war," Macron said yesterday during a visit to Mayen, in northwestern France.
The Elyse Palace confirmed that a meeting was held with military and diplomatic advisers.

A spokesman for the European Commission said today that there could be no credence in claims by Russian investigative services that the truck that allegedly blew up on Saturday on the Kerch (Crimea) bridge had left Bulgaria and passed through Georgia, Armenia and North Ossetia before arriving in the Krasnodar region (Russia).

Russian authorities said that a truck bomb on Oct. 8 caused a fire and the collapse of a section of a bridge linking Russia-annexed Crimea with Russia _ a key supply artery for Moscow's faltering war effort in southern Ukraine.

"This is just the beginning," the Ukrainians told Vladimir Putin after a series of spectacular attacks they carried out in Crimea, which is controlled by the Russians, writes "The Times."

The bodies of four Turkish sailors, who died on two ships which caught fire in the Kerch Strait, have arrived in Istanbul by plane.

We demand safe, free and unimpeded transit for all ships through the Kerch Strait and the immediate and unconditional release of all illegally detained Ukrainian seafarers, Merkel and Macron said in a joint statement quoted by Reuters.

Russia last month seized the vessels and their crew, stressing that they had violated the country's territorial waters, which Ukraine denies.

The US has begun making the necessary preparations to sail a warship into the Black Sea, a move that comes amid heightened tensions in the region following Russia's seizure of Ukrainian ships and detention of Ukrainian sailors.

This has been stated by the Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Igor Voronchenko.

"In line with the Montreal Convention and its paragraph 19, we will seek the closure of the Bosphorus in Turkey in order to force the Russians to understand what constitutes a violation of international law," Voronchenko said, according to TASS.

Vladimir Varimez from the village of Bankovka is one of the 24 sailors who were arrested after three Ukrainian ships tried to cross the Kerch Strait, bTV reported.

The information was confirmed by the mayor of the village Viktor Genchev.

He added that Vladimir's father is still in Bankovka, but it is possible at some point to leave for Sevastopol to try to meet his son.