Ukraine accuses Russia of flouting maritime law beside Crimea

By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Ukraine accused Russia at an international court on Monday of flouting sea law by trying to keep the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and annexed Crimea under its sole control.

Kyiv began proceedings at the Hague-based intergovernmental Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 after Moscow began building the 19 km (12 mile) Crimea Bridge link to the peninsula it seized from Ukraine two years previously.

The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and became a major supply route for troops after Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Kyiv, which wants the bridge demolished and has targeted it with attacks, says Russia built it low to keep international ships out while allowing smaller Russian ones through the strait connecting the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.

"Russia wants to take the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait for itself," Ukraine's representative Anton Korynevych told arbitrators at the opening of hearings.

Russia dismissed Ukraine's case as groundless and hopeless.

Its representative Gennady Kuzmin denied any Russian interference with navigation and said anyway the arbitration court had no right to rule in the case. "Besides the lack of jurisdiction over these claims, they are simply wrong," he said.

Arbitration court cases can take years.

The Kerch Strait case is one of multiple proceeding at international courts and institutions that Ukraine is pressing against Russia.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)