HMS Echo, a multi-role, oceanographic survey ship from the British Royal Navy docked in Ukraine’s southeastern coastal city of Odesa on Dec. 19, one day before a group of key British lawmakers also arrived in Ukraine for an official visit to the troubled Sea of Azov.
The British warship was due to deploy to the Black Sea in early 2019, under an agreement with Ukraine, as part of U.K. strategic plans for a freedom of navigation maneuver in support of the country. The ship can remain in the Black Sea for up to 21 days, according to international law.
It is the first NATO warship to enter the Black Sea since Russian ships attacked Ukrainian naval vessels on Nov. 25, illegally seizing three boats and arresting 24 Ukrainian sailors, who still remain imprisoned in Moscow.
The ship was also intended, according to U.K. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson speaking back in November, to support the planned deployment of U.K. Royal Marine commandos to Ukraine for training efforts with the Ukrainian military under the so-called mission, Operation Orbital.
HMS Echo’s deployment date seems to have been pushed up in the wake of the Nov. 25 Russian attacks on boats belonging to the Ukrainian navy, on the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait that connects to the Azov Sea.
The ship has been mischaracterized in some British and Russian media reports as a “spy ship” when, in reality, the vessel is for underwater, hydrographic surveying and oceanography.
According to some observers, however, the vessel is an interesting choice for London to send as it’s perfectly-equipped to scan the seabed for submarines, detect hidden underwater ordinance and provide a broad range of support roles to allied marine and amphibious operations.
Shortly before the Royal Navy warship passed through the Bosphorus Strait on Dec. 18, Williamson addressed the U.K. Parliament, asking elected lawmakers not to forget Ukraine.
“We must remember that we have a friend in Ukraine,” he said, adding that Ukraine was standing firm in the face of what he called Russian incursions, territory seizures and invasion.
Ukraine, he said, needed more support.
“The government must work continuously with Ukraine, giving it the support that it needs,” he also said, adding that UK military chiefs are in discussion with Ukraine about what other assistance the country needs.
UK lawmakers to visit Azov Sea
On Dec. 20, British members of parliament John Whittingdale and Michael Fallon arrived in Ukraine for an official visit, the first delegation of lawmakers from a G7 country since the dramatic events of Nov. 25 on the Black Sea.
Whittingdale is a former, Conservative government minister, now Chairman of the U.K.-Ukraine All Party Parliamentary Committee in the U.K. House of Commons, while Fallon, also a Conservative politician, served as defense secretary from 2014 until 2017.
On the afternoon of Dec. 20, both politicians met with the Speaker of Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy before taking meetings with other Ukrainian ministers, officials and lawmakers. In the evening of Dec. 20, they meet with Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, the deputy head of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko’s Administration, before flying to Ukraine’s eastern city of Zaporizhia.
After that, the two senior politicians will spend two days “inspecting” the security situation at the Sea of Azov port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol, where Russian naval aggression has reportedly throttled commercial maritime traffic to a relative trickle.
On Dec. 23, the British lawmakers return to Kyiv and on to London.
Svitlana Zalishchuk, a member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine’s parliament, has helped to coordinate the visit and says that Fallon and Whittingdale are here, by Ukrainian invitation, to see for themselves the scale of Russia’s escalation against the country.
“It is important for Ukraine, that our international partners see the reality of this new level of Russian escalation with their own eyes,” she told the Kyiv Post.
“Correct and full information (about the situation) will help international allies to make appropriate decisions in counteracting Russian aggression in Ukraine, the U.K., and other democratic countries.”
On Dec. 19, Ukrainian security officials said at a conference in Kyiv that they will attempt to sail more navy ships into the Sea of Azov, despite previous Russian aggression.
“Russia’s aggression will not stop our plans to create a naval group in the Sea of Azov,” Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the Ukrainian government’s national security and defense council, said to the Ukrainian language service of the BBC.
“If we stop and retreat, Russia will actually fulfill its task of capturing the Sea of Azov, present the world with self-determined new sea borders in the Black Sea, de facto legalizing the occupation of Crimea,” he said, as reported by the BBC.
