Russia abolishes treaty to share Azov Sea with Ukraine

Moscow has canceled a treaty with Kiev on the joint use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, claiming that Ukraine is no longer a coastal state in the region.

During the parliamentary session on June 1, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that the annexation of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces into Russia has created a new problem in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, which is that they "now completely belong to Moscow".

"Russia must terminate the treaty because Ukraine has lost the status of a coastal state over the above-mentioned areas," Deputy Minister Galuzin announced.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin in Moscow last year. Photo:TASS — Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin in Moscow last year. Photo: *TASS*

Mr. Galuzin said that the Ukrainian parliament had annulled all cooperation agreements with Russia related to the Azov Sea in February. He assured Russian lawmakers that Moscow had grounds to legally terminate the agreement, based on the provisions set out in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 24 submitted a bill to abolish the treaty on the joint use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine.

The treaty, signed in the city of Kerch in the Crimean peninsula on December 24, 2003, emphasizes the important role of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait for the economic development of the two countries, as well as the need to protect the Azov-Kerch region as an inseparable natural and economic entity.

Ukraine has not commented on Russia's announcement to scrap the treaty.