Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that the Kerch Strait incident, during which three Ukrainian ships illegally crossed Russian territorial waters, makes the building of a channel across the Vistula Spit even more important.
WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that the Kerch Strait incident, during which three Ukrainian ships illegally crossed Russian territorial waters, makes the building of a channel across the Vistula Spit even more important."The Kerch Strait incident shows how essential it is to work on building the channel across the Vistula Spit," Morawiecki said while addressing the country's parliament, the Sejm.
In May 2016, the Polish government made the decision to build the channel about 0.8 miles wide and 16 feet deep, which would allow vessels up to 328 feet long, 65 feet wide and with maximum draft of 13 feet to access Elblag port. The channel will provide Polish vessels with free access to the Baltic Sea without the need to pass through the Russian territorial waters. A tender for the construction of the channel is expected to be announced up to the end of the year.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian vessels were arrested by Russia after failing to respond to a demand to stop.
Following the incident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree declaring martial law in several Ukrainian regions located near the Russian border and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, which will be in place for 30 days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to introduce martial law in Ukraine ahead of the country's presidential election. The martial law would affect the campaign, set to start in late December, amid Poroshenko's low approval rating, Putin said.
