Kyiv calls for NATO to secure Black Sea, integrate Ukrainian defences

On Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said NATO should strengthen Black Sea security and integrate Ukraine’s air and missile defenses.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the Black Sea and Ukrainian coast have been key battlegrounds.

“The Black Sea is instrumental for making the whole of Europe peaceful and future-oriented,” Kuleba told a Bucharest Black Sea security conference via video link.

“Sadly, it shows how quickly things may worsen if one ignores threats. The Black Sea should become NATO’s Baltic Sea.

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said, “The Black Sea can never be a NATO sea.”

“This is a shared sea,” he said. It’s unbreakable.”

As two of the world’s largest grain exporters, Moscow and Kyiv depend on the sea for trade. Last year, the UN and Turkey reached an agreement to keep ports open, averting a worldwide food crisis.

“We need to address the common Russia problem together,” Kuleba stated. “I support the expert idea to integrate Ukraine’s air and missile defense systems with those of Black and Baltic Sea NATO allies.”

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana did not explicitly respond to Kuleba’s call, but later acknowledged the alliance has increased its Black Sea presence.

He announced a vital infrastructure work force with the EU.

“I encourage countries in the Black Sea region to adopt and be active in this new format because the Black Sea has infrastructure… we need to protect,” Geoana added.

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said a robust NATO base in the Black Sea was a “must” and that his country will cooperate with NATO allies to build a rotating presence.

BLACK SEAFLEES
Russia’s Black Sea fleet is stationed in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow captured and annexed in 2014. Russia wants Ukraine’s ports.

Since last year’s invasion, Moscow has taken the entire Sea of Azov coast that leads into the Black Sea, but it was stopped 130 km (80 miles) east of Ukraine’s important port Odesa.

Kyiv has no equivalent navy, but since Ukraine lost the flagship Russian cruiser Moskva a year ago and recovered Snake Island, a rocky island near water routes to Odesa, Russia’s naval superiority has been blunted.

In the past year, Finland and Sweden’s application to join NATO has reshaped the security picture surrounding the Baltic Sea in northern Europe, leaving Russia as the only coastal country outside NATO.

Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO would affect the Black Sea, where Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey are already members.

Kuleba said the Vilnius NATO meeting would be an opportunity “to show that the door is not only open but that there is a clear plan on when and how Ukraine will enter it.”

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Kyiv needs guarantees to prevent Russian attack. “Ukraine’s NATO membership is unavoidable,” he stated.