RPT - Ukrainian Warship's Kerch Strait Rush Could Be Test Of US Support - Expert

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2021) Ukraine could have sent a military ship to the Russia-controlled Kerch Strait off Crimean shore to test the limits of US support, Alan Cafruny, a professor of international affairs at Hamilton College's Government Department in New York, told Sputnik on Friday.

Russia said on Thursday that the Ukrainian naval command ship Donbas was headed toward the narrow strait separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, ignoring coast guards' requests to change the course. It eventually turned back. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the ship crew's act a provocation.

"The incident in the Kerch Strait could potentially test the limits of US support. It is highly unlikely that Kiev could actually succeed in this respect," Cafruny said.

The naval standoff came two days after a virtual summit of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden saw the two leaders draw "red lines" on what they would not tolerate with regard to Ukraine.

Biden promised modest increases in military support to Ukraine but rejected Kiev's requests to send in troops. He later talked to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Cafruny suggested that Biden must have warned Zelenskyy against taking military action in the hopes of triggering US involvement, which the expert said would have mirrored the "fatal miscalculations" made by Georgia in 2008.

Putin also said after the video call with Biden that Russia would not accept Ukraine's entry into NATO. Cafruny said the US could not agree to give Russia such guarantees, but he insisted that Ukraine had no prospect of joining the alliance, despite the "bellicose rhetoric emanating from some quarters in Washington."